A poker hand where you hold four consecutive cards of a straight, missing one on the end. For example 5678 and 6789 are open-ended straight draws, whereas 5689 is an inside straight draw.

Open-ended straight draws are much better hands than inside straights, because twice as many cards will complete your straight. In the above examples, the first hand needs either a 4 or a 9 to make a straight. The seconds makes on a 5 or a ten. But the last one only hits on a 7. An open-ended straight has a slightly worse chance to hit than a four card flush, if no other cards are known to be out of play.

The term is also used generically to describe any hand that needs two cards to hit, even when the cards in the hand are not consecutive and the needed cards aren't at the ends. A common example is when a hand contains two distinct inside straight draws.

In Texas Hold-em an open-ended straight draw will hit 8 out of 47 times (five of the 52 cards are known and 8 will make the straight) on the turn. If not, it will river an additional 8 out of 46 times (one more card is known, but the 8 cards that make the straight are still in the deck). By solving the conditional probability, you can expect about 1/3 of your flopped open-ended straight draws to hit.

Open-ended straight draws also include double belly busters, which are only possible in poker games where you get 7 or more cards.

Example of a double belly buster in seven card stud: if you're holding 35679 you will notice that there are still 2 cards that will complete your straight, namely a 4 or an 8.

Correction to AT's writeup: Immediately after the flop you have about a 31.5% chance of making that straight. You've got eight cards out of 47 that can help you, but you've also got the turn and the river left, thus giving you two shots at making that straight.

The fact that the odds are close to one-third is critical. If more than two people (including you) are in the hand, then pot odds dictate that you should draw for your straight as long as the bets are reasonable. If you're heads-up against someone, however, then you're drawing for the chance of doubling your money when your odds of doing so are one in three.

Also, a four-card flush has a slightly greater chance of hitting, since there are nine outs to the flush, as opposed to eight for the straight.

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