Connectors Suited or Otherwise

Talk about a starting hand that has believers and non-believers.  Watch any tournament and you will soon see who is willing to play this hand and who folds it immediately.  The point is this: some very good players are willing to play this hand all the time out of the gate.  Others would never do it at any time.  Being of the playing school, these are the reasons for it not being that bad of a starting hand.

It can be discarded after the flop if it is totally missed and it can be a great trapping hand if the flop falls friendly toward the two cards.  An opponent with a big pair will think they have a lock on the hand.  Slow play a set or two pair and this hand can score big time.  A straight or a flush is even better although not as well hidden.  Some very big name players play this hand all the time from the start.  Farha and Negreanu do it all the time in tournaments and cash games.

Big pairs and Ace King get beat all the time in poker games.  As often as not it is a small set or two pairs that cuts the head off.  The very best players use this starting hand a great deal early in tournaments when the anties are small and less painful when lost.  They do this because they know that one solid trap will give them a pot that will cover many losses and still generate a profit.  A few of these pots early will give the player a safety zone in their stack of chips.  This is the benefit of this play in tournaments.  In a no-limit cash game it can be a chip stacker if you trap a stubborn player.

Players who refuse to ever play these hands are cutting out a great many dealt hands and making them limit the hands they will play.  Good starting hands are a small percentage of all or the hands that are dealt out of 100 hands. By increasing the number of starting hands, the player improves their chances of catching a winning hand.  The non-players have to get many hands to win a tournament.  This rush is not seen all the time in tournaments. If you try this way of playing, be prepared to bail if the flop s not helpful to your hand.

Tagscards, Farha, hands, Negreanu, poker players, poker strategy, profit, tournaments

See also

• The final stage of any Holdem Tournament
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• When to move up in the table limits in Holdem
  New players to Holdem should start at a limit that is well within their stake money and only move up in limits when they are consistently winning at the starting level.  As a player moves up in the table limits the opponents will become tougher to beat.  The higher the limit of play usually means [...]