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This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
If you want to quickly improve your poker game, the best thing you can do is simply be more selective with the hands you choose to play.
Playing too many hands is the most common beginner poker mistake, but the good news is that it can be fixed quite easily.
In this article, we’ll take a look at 4 example hands you should ditch from your range altogether.
We’ll also discuss if there are any situations in which these hands may actually be playable.
Let’s get right into it.
Bad Poker Hand #1: Nine-Three Suited 9♥3♥
Nine-Two suited is the quintessential suited junk hand no decent poker player will ever play.
There is virtually nothing redeeming about this hand, and you’d do better to avoid playing it altogether.
A lot of amateur poker players make the mistake of playing just about any suited hand for the prospect of catching a flush post flop, but this is a huge mistake.
Here are a few reasons why you should avoid playing suited junk hands:
A) It’s very difficult to make a flush post flop
A flush is a relatively strong hand combination, but it’s actually very difficult to make a flush in no-limit hold’em.
If you have a suited hand, the chance of flopping a flush is only 0.8%.
You have a better chance of flopping a flush draw, but it’s still far from likely.
The chance of flopping a flush draw with a suited hand is only about 11%.
And even if you manage to flop a flush draw, you still have to rely on hitting your outs on future streets to complete your hand.
An out is a card you need to complete a certain hand combination.
For example, if you have a flush draw, you have 9 outs to a flush, since there are 13 cards of the same suit in the deck.
The more outs you have, the stronger your draw.
By the way, you can quickly calculate the percentage chance of your draw completing by using the so-called rule of fours.
Rule of fours: simply multiply the number of outs you have by 4 to get a rough percentage chance of your draw competing from flop to river.
The rule of fours gets slightly less accurate the more outs you have, but it works well in most in-game situations.
By using the rule of fours to calculate the chance of completing a flush draw, you would get 36%, which is quite close to the actual chance of completing a flush draw.
If you want to know the chance of your draw completing on the next street (flop to turn or turn to river), you simply multiply the number of outs by 2 instead of 4.
However, even if you complete the flush draw with a hand like Nine-Two suited, you’re still not guaranteed to win the hand, which brings us to the second problem.
B) Reverse implied odds
By playing a weak hand like 93 suited, you run the risk of your opponent ending up with a stronger flush than you.
In other words, you run the risk of your hand being dominated by stronger hands.
This means you have to take the reverse implied odds into account.
Implied odds refer to the amount of money you can potentially earn on future streets if your draw completes.
Reverse implied odds refer to the amount of money you can lose if your draw completes, but your opponent ends up having an even stronger hand.
Check out my other article on everything you need to know about poker odds for a much deeper dive.
The problem with suited junk is that you’re not drawing to the nuts, i.e. the strongest possible combination on a given board.
This is why hands like suited Aces have a much better playability post flop, since they are always drawing to the nut flush.
This brings us to the third reason to avoid playing suited junk.
C) Poor playability post flop
Aside from the unlikely chance of making a flush, a hand like 93s has very little going for it in terms of post flop playability.
It can’t make any other strong combinations like straights, and it can only flop mediocre pairs.
Even if you manage to hit a top pair (very unlikely), you still have to worry about a weak kicker.
A kicker is a card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can often determine the winner if both players have the same combination.
For example, if both players have a top pair hand, the player with the stronger kicker wins the hand.
Playing hands with a weak kicker means you’re risking your hand being dominated.
A dominated hand is unlikely to win against other hands due to inferior kicker.
For example, if you play a hand like 93s, your hand is dominated by all other 9x hands.
Check out Nathan's recent video for the ultimate list of "must know" beginner poker tips.
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Bad Poker Hand #2: Three-Two Suited 3♣2♣
A hand like Three-Two suited may look playable at a glance, but it suffers from similar problems like other suited junk hands on this list.
Suited connectors are great speculative hands that have great playability post flop.
They can hit the flop in a variety of different ways, and they have a great nuts potential, with the ability to make straights and flushes.
The problem with small suited connectors like 32s, however, is that you’re not drawing to the nuts.
This means that you’re running the risk of your opponent having a stronger hand than you if you manage to hit your strong combinations.
For example, if you hit a flush with 32s, every other suited hand of the same suit has you beat.
This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing small suited connectors.
And as mentioned before, it’s very rare to hit a flush in no-limit hold’em in the first place.
You will have a similar problem with straights as well, as 32s is drawing to the so-called ass end of a straight.
For example, if the flop is 6♦5♠4♥
You made your straight, but you don’t have the nuts, as your opponent could still beat you if they hold 87.
For these reasons, 32s is likely not going to be a profitable hand for you over the long run.
If you’re using a hand tracking software like PokerTracker 4, you can check the long term profitability of each individual hand by using the hand report feature.
By using custom hand reports, you can check the profitability of any situation imaginable, and you can see exactly where you might be bleeding money over the long run.
If you don’t manage to hit a strong combination like a straight or a flush, 32s has very limited playability post flop.
It can’t make any strong pairs, and if you connect with the flop, you will likely only have a third pair.
Since one pair hands are the most common hand combination you’re going to get in no-limit hold’em, it’s crucial that you make sure to make strong top pair hands that can extract value from weaker hands.
Even if you manage to hit a relatively strong combination like two pairs with 32s, your hand is still very vulnerable to getting outdrawn, because you have the weakest two pairs.
Now, all of this is not to say that a hand like 32s is completely unplayable.
It does have a limited nuts potential, and it can be played in certain situations.
For example, it can be a perfectly fine hand for blind stealing, especially if you have weak and/or passive players left to act in the blinds.
Blind stealing means open-raising from the late table positions (cutoff, button, and the small blind) with the intention of getting your opponents to fold and taking down the pot preflop.
When you are blind stealing, your hand strength is less important because your intention is to win the pot outright.
What’s more important than your hand strength are the playing tendencies of players in the blinds.
If your opponents fold way too often to blind stealing attempts, your hand strength is basically irrelevant.
For example, if a player folds 8 or even 9 times out of 10 to blind stealing, you can steal their blinds with virtually any two cards.
If you do get called, a hand like 32s still has limited playability post flop.
An added bonus is that your opponent will have a hard time putting you on your exact hand, because they won’t expect a hand like 32 to be in your range.
This means that your hand has a certain deception value, which can be important when playing against more observant opponents.
Getting tricky from time to time and mixing up your game can be a good strategy to keep your opponents guessing.
Example Hand #1
Cash game, effective stack size: 100 BB
You are dealt 3♣2♣ on the BU (button).
You: ???
You should open-raise to 2.5 BB.
This is a good spot for blind stealing, provided the players in the blinds fold to blind stealing attempts too often.
Stealing the blinds is one of the easiest and most reliable ways of printing EV (expected value) over time.
The best part is that your hand strength is often totally irrelevant.
In this spot, if you get called, you still have plenty of options to win the pot post flop.
If you miss the flop, you can still make a standard c-bet and expect to generate folds most of the time.
A continuation bet (c-bet for short) is a bet made by the previous street's aggressor.
Or you can flop some sort of a draw and attempt a semibluff.
You are semibluffing when you don’t have a strong made hand yet, but your hand can improve on future streets if you hit your outs.
In spots like these, your opponents playing tendencies are often more important than your hole cards alone.
This means you are playing the player, not the cards.
This is discussed in much more detail in The Microstakes Playbook.
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Bad Poker Hand #3: King-Four Suited K♦4♦
King-Four suited is another example of a suited junk hand you should probably avoid playing.
While it does have a limited nuts potential with the ability to make strong flushes, it can still get you in trouble because you’re only drawing to the second strongest flush.
This means you can potentially lose the hand to a number of suited Ax hands.
If you happen to make a flush with a Kx hand, it can be really hard to let go of it, which can cause you to lose a huge pot if your opponent happens to have a flush with an Ace.
This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing a hand like King-Four suited.
Another problem with K4s is an inferior kicker that can often get you in trouble.
If you hit a pair of Kings, you run the risk of your hand being dominated by a number of stronger Kx hands.
As mentioned, one pair is the most common combination you will get in no-limit hold’em, so it’s important to avoid playing hands that can easily be dominated.
Like some other hands on this list, K4s is not totally unplayable.
Suited Kings make for decent light 3-betting hands.
A light 3-bet is a re-raise against another player’s open-raise made with the intention of getting your opponent to fold and taking down the pot preflop.
A light 3-bet is a re-raise against another player’s open-raise made with the intention of getting your opponent to fold and taking down the pot preflop.
This is the opposite of a value 3-bet, where you expect to get called by weaker hands.
Suited Kings are good light 3-betting hands due to their blocker power.
A blocker is a card in your hand that reduces the number of strong combinations in your opponent’s range.
For example, if you hold a King, it’s less likely for your opponent to have strong combinations like pocket Kings, Ace-King, King-Queen and so on.
Incorporating a light 3-bet in your arsenal will make you more difficult to play against.
Your opponent will have to think twice about getting involved in a hand with you, and they will be less likely to steal your blinds with impunity.
Also, by adding a few light 3-bets in your range, it will be easier to extract value once you actually get a strong value hand, like pocket Aces or pocket Kings.
If you only 3-bet with strong value hands, you run the risk of becoming too predictable, and your opponents will simply fold every time you 3-bet.
But if you balance your 3-betting range, your opponents will have a harder time of putting you on a hand.
Of course, you want to light 3-bet with hands that have at least some sort of playability post flop in case your bluff gets called.
This is where hands like K4s come in, as they have some limited playability post flop with decent nuts potential.
Example Hand #2
You are dealt K♦4♦ in the SB (small blind).
A tight and aggressive player open-raises to 2.5x from the BU (button).
You: ???
You should light 3-bet to 10x.
This is a good spot for a light 3-bet, because you can get your opponent to fold most of the time.
Tight and aggressive players will usually open-raise quite a wide range from the button, since the button is the most profitable seat at the table.
And most of the hands in that range can’t stand the pressure of a 3-bet.
In this spot, you can assume the villain will be blind stealing a decent chunk of the time, but will give up if you put up some sort of a fight.
Even if your bluff gets called, you will go to the flop with the range advantage and the initiative, meaning you can often take down the flop with a simple c-bet, depending on the flop texture.
In today’s games, it takes more than waiting around for a premium hand to be a profitable long term winner.
You also need to look for edges in less than ideal circumstances. This means knowing how to play out of position against skilled opponents who won’t just roll over.
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Bad Poker Hand #4: Ace-Six Offsuit A♥6♠
A lot of beginner poker players make the mistake of playing just about any Ace, suited or offsuit.
They do this because they drastically overvalue the strength of top pair hands.
When you play Ax hands, you can obviously make a top pair hand on any flop, but there are a few pitfalls you should avoid when playing weak Ax hands.
There are a few problems with a hand like Ace-Six offsuit.
The first one is a mediocre kicker.
A kicker is a card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can often determine the winner if both players have the same hand combination.
For example, if both players have a pair of Aces, the player with the stronger kicker wins the hand.
If you play a mediocre hand like A6o, you run the risk of your hand being dominated by stronger Ax hands.
A dominated hand is unlikely to win against another hand due to an inferior kicker.
Since one pair is the most common hand combination you’re going to make in no-limit hold’em, a kicker will often determine the winner of the hand.
For this reason, you should always be careful when playing hands with weak kickers.
You always want your hand to dominate your opponent’s, instead of the other way around.
Another reason you should avoid playing rag Aces is the fact that they have very limited nuts potential.
Suited Aces, on the other hand, have a great nuts potential, because they can make the nuts flushes.
Small suited Aces (A2s through A5s) have an additional ability to make straights, adding to their nuts potential.
This makes small suited Aces great 3-bet bluffing hands.
Check out my ultimate 3-betting guide for a much deeper dive on this.
A hand like A6o, on the other hand, has very little going for it in terms of its post flop playability, and the mediocre kicker threatens to give you only the second best hand, which is the worst hand to have in poker.
This doesn’t mean the hand is totally unplayable in all situations, though.
Like 32s, it can be used for blind stealing if the opponents in the blinds tend to play passively and give up their blinds easily.
Also, Ax hands tend to perform well in some specific game formats.
For example, in heads-up poker, Ax hands go up in value due to their ability to make a top pair.
When you play heads-up, you don’t have the luxury of waiting around for the nuts all day as you would in a full-ring game, for example.
This means you need to get comfortable playing hands that would otherwise be considered mediocre.
Also, Ax hands tend to perform well with shallower effective stack sizes, like in multitable tournaments.
If you have a short stack, you will sometimes need to shove all-in preflop, either to steal the blinds or attempt to double up by winning a coin flip.
When you shove all-in, Ax hands have decent equity and are ahead of a wide range of hands.
Check out Nathan’s recent video for more advanced tournament poker tips.
4 Shockingly Bad Poker Hands Nobody Should Ever Play - Summary
You don’t need to learn a lot of advanced poker strategy to be a long term winner in this game.
All you have to do is be disciplined with your starting hand selection, and value bet your strong hands relentlessly.
This means you should avoid playing mediocre to bad hands that can often get you in trouble post flop.
Here are four starting poker hands that you should (almost) never play.
1. Nine-Three suited
92 suited and similar hands fall into the category of suited junk. Aside from the potential to make mediocre flushes, they have nothing going on for them in terms of post flop playabilty.
2. Three-Two suited
Suited connectors are great speculative hands that have great implied odds and nuts potential.
The problem with small suited connectors, however, is the fact that you’re not drawing to the nuts, which means you run the risk of having only the second best hand.
3. King-Four suited
King-Four suited does have limited nuts potential, but you run the risk of only having the second strongest flush.
It also has an inferior kicker problem, meaning your hand will often be dominated by stronger Kx hands.
4. Ace-Six offsuit
Rag Aces can often get you in trouble due to the inferior kicker. Also, unlike suited Aces, Ace-Six offsuit has no nuts potential, so it has very limited playability post flop.
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