I have recently made the mistake of not betting enough at seemingly drawless flops that in fact have very nasty hidden draws.

For instance, KT5 rainbow looks harmless but actually harbors several draws. QJ is an open-ended, the most fearsome of the bunch, and two gutshots exist: AQ and J9.

Some flops only have gutshots available, which allow you to bet less. These normally involve an ace or cards seperated by a minimum of 4 or more, examples: AJ4, K93, and AT5 rainbow.


An even tricker one involves only two flops in the game: AQ8 and A37. These flops look to only have gutshots possible, due to the ace being on the board. However, the "double belly-buster" rears its ugly head in the form of JT on the AQ8 board (with outs of K and 9) and 45 on the A37 board (with outs of 2 and 6), giving them the same number of outs as an open-ended straight draw.

There are only 4 truely drawless flops in the game: K82, K72, K83, and Q72 rainbow. These are the flops you can minbet at with your top pair.

So rainbow doesnt always spell happiness in Texas Hold 'em..