.jpg "5 Poker Hands You Should Avoid Like the PLAGUE")
This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
If you want to quickly improve your poker game, the best place to start is simply play less hands preflop.
Playing too many hands is the most common amateur poker mistake, but fortunately, it’s the one that’s most easily fixable.
In this article, we’ll take a look at 4 hands that you should (almost) never play.
We’ll take a closer look at why these hands are often trouble, and if there are any spots where you can actually play them profitably.
Let’s get right into it.
Bad Poker Hand #1: Ace-Three Offsuit A♦3♣
A lot of amateur poker players will play just about any Ace preflop in the hopes of making a top pair post flop.
But this is a huge mistake that’s likely to cost you money over the long run.
If you play rag Aces like Ace-Three offsuit, you run the risk of your hand being dominated.
A dominated hand is the one that’s unlikely to win against another hand due to an inferior kicker.
A kicker is the card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can often determine the winner of the hand if both players have the same combination.
For example, if both players have a pair of Aces, the player with the stronger kicker wins the hand.
Since the most common hand combination you’ll make in no-limit hold’em is one pair, kickers will often determine the winner of the hand, so you want to avoid playing hands with weak kickers.
You always want your hand to dominate your opponent’s, instead of the other way around.
And a hand like A3o is dominated by almost all other Ax hands except A2, meaning it will often spell trouble for you post flop.
Aside from the prospect of making a weak top pair, Ace-Three offsuit has very limited playability post flop.
Ace-Three offsuit will smash the flop only 3.8% of the time.
To smash the flop means to make a very strong combination on the flop, meaning two pair or better.
A3o also has a very limited nuts potential.
(The nuts refers to the strongest possible combination on a given board.)
You can technically make a straight with A3o, but the chances are pretty slim to say the least.
The chance of flopping a straight with A3o is only 0.43%.
You have a better chance of flopping a straight draw, but this is also far from likely.
The chance of flopping a straight draw with A3o is only 14.77%.
And even if you flop a straight draw, you still need to rely on hitting one of your outs on future streets.
Check out my other article on how to play straight draws like the pros for a much deeper dive on this.
Bottom line: rag Aces have poor playability post flop, and if they do connect with the flop, they will usually make a weak top pair.
This means you’re running the risk of having only the second best hand, which is the worst hand to have in poker.
Suited Aces, on the other hand, have a much better post flop playability, mostly thanks to their insane nuts potential.
With suited Aces, you’re always drawing to the strongest possible flush, so you don’t have to worry about reverse implied odds.
Implied odds refer to the amount of money you can potentially make on future streets if you complete your draw.
Reverse implied odds refer to the amount of money you stand to lose if you complete your draw, but your opponent ends up with an even stronger hand.
Due to their great nuts potential, suited Aces have great implied odds, which makes them great speculative hands.
Speculative hands are the ones that need to improve post flop in order to be played profitably, but offer a huge potential upside if they do connect with the board.
Now, all of this is not to say that rag Aces are totally unplayable in all situations.
For example, rag Aces can be perfectly fine blind stealing hands if your opponents don’t defend their blinds often enough.
When it comes to blind stealing, your hand strength (or lack thereof) is often irrelevant). What matters more is your opponents playing tendencies.
So if your opponents tend to overfold to blind stealing attempts, you can try to steal their blinds with an insanely wide range.
To blind steal means to open-raise in late positions (the cutoff, the button, and the small blind) with the intention of taking down the pot preflop.
Rag Aces are decent blind stealing candidates due to their blocker power.
A blocker is a card in your hand that reduces the number of strong combinations from your opponent’s range.
For example, if you hold an Ace in your hand, it’s less likely for your opponent to have strong combinations like pocket Aces, Ace-King, Ace-Queen and so on.
This makes them more likely to fold to your stealing attempts.
Example Hand #1
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt A♦3♣ in the BU (button).
You: ???
You should open-raise to 2.5 BB.
In this spot, you can try to steal your opponent’s blinds if your opponent’s aren’t likely to fight back too much.
Stealing the blinds is one of the best ways to print EV (expected value) over the long run, because these spots happen fairly frequently.
For example, if you’re playing a 6-max cash game, you can potentially have a blind stealing opportunity 3 times per orbit.
This is rarely going to be the case in practice, because another player will usually open-raise before you. But you will still usually have at least one or two blind stealing opportunities per orbit.
If your opponents are likely to fight back and 3-bet a lot, you’re better off just folding your rag Aces, instead.
But often enough, you’ll find that players at the lower stakes in particular don’t defend their blinds nearly enough, so keep an eye out for these blind stealing opportunities.
What if you're card dead though?
Check out my recent video on how you can win more pots even if you're not getting dealt any good cards.
Never miss my new poker videos. Join 100,000+ who are already subscribed.
Bad Poker Hand #2: Three-Two Suited 3♥2♥
Suited connectors are great speculative hands that can connect with the board in a variety of ways.
But speculative hands rely on hitting strong combinations post flop in order to be played profitably.
So if you decide to play a speculative hand (like a suited connector or a small pocket pair), you want to make the best hand if you do connect with the board.
This brings us to the problem with playing small suited connectors like 32s.
Even if you make a strong combination like a straight or a flush, you’re still not guaranteed to have the best hand.
For example, if you manage to make a flush post flop (which is quite unlikely in the first place), you’re still potentially losing to all the stronger flushes, since 32s makes the weakest possible flush.
You’ll often encounter a similar problem if you make a straight, as well.
When you make a straight with 32s, you will often make a bottom end of a straight.
For example, let’s say you are dealt 3♥2♥ and the board is: 6♠5♦4♣.
You’re potentially losing to 87 (or even 73, for that matter).
This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing small suited connectors.
Apart from the (remote) potential of making weak straights and flushes, Three-Two suited doesn’t have much going for it in terms of post flop playability.
It can make very weak pairs post flop, and even if you smash the flop and get two pairs, your hand can easily get counterfeited on future streets.
Your hand is counterfeited when a turn or river card makes your hand combination less valuable or obsolete.
For example, let’s say you are dealt 3♥2♥ and the flop is:
9♥3♣2♦
Let’s also assume your opponent has some sort of a pocket pair. If another Nine comes on the board, your hand will be “counterfeited”, because now your opponent has a stronger two pair hand.
Or, let’s assume that your opponent has a hand like T9s. In this case, any Ten on the turn or river will counterfeit your hand.
The problem with low-ranking hands like 32 is the fact that virtually all the turn and river cards make your range relatively weaker.
So even if you smash the flop, you can’t be sure you’ll have the best hand by the river, which makes it hard for you to win a big pot.
Bottom line: low-ranking hands like 32s perform very poorly post flop because they can’t make strong pairs.
And since the most common hand combination you’ll make in no-limit hold’em is single pair, you want to be able to flop top pair hands more often than not.
32s obviously can’t flop a top pair, and even if you flop a straight or a flush draw, you run the risk of drawing to only the second best hand.
Low-ranking hands like 32s also don't have any blocker power, which makes them inadequate bluffing hands, as well.
For more information on how to use blockers for effective bluffing and hand reading, check out The Microstakes Playbook.
Learn to Make $2000 Per Month in Small Stakes Games With My Free Poker Cheat Sheet
If so, then I wrote this free poker cheat sheet for you.
This is the best completely free poker strategy guide available online today. It shows you how to crush the small stakes games step by step.
Learn exactly what hands to play and when to bet, raise and bluff all in!
These are the proven strategies that I have used as a 10+ year poker pro to create some of the highest winnings of all time in these games.
Enter your details below and I will send my free poker "cheat sheet" to your inbox right now.
Bad Poker Hand #3: Queen-Ten Offsuit Q♣T♦
A hand like Queen-Ten offsuit may look pretty enough at a glance, but it can often get you into a lot of awkward spots post flop.
While not completely unplayable like some other hands, you should still exercise caution when playing it, and ideally avoid playing it in some spots altogether.
Like some other hands on the list, Queen-Ten offsuit does have a limited nuts potential, with the ability to make strong straights.
However, since it’s a gapper hand, it will make straights less often than connector hands.
QTo will flop an open-ended straight draw and gutshot draw 7% and 15% of the time, respectively.
It will also flop a top pair hand or better 22% of the time, so it’s far from unplayable.
However, the problem arises if you overplay QTo in certain spots, because you run the risk of your hand being dominated.
While QTo can be played profitably if you open-raise with it from late positions (the cutoff and the button), it’s far less profitable if you call with it preflop.
That’s because your hand is often going to be behind your opponent’s range.
For example, let’s say you are dealt QTo and you call your opponent’s open-raise preflop.
Let’s also assume the villain open-raises the top 20% of the hands from a certain position.
Against the top 20% hands in no-limit hold’em, QTo will flop the best hand only 28% of the time.
That’s because your opponent’s range is likely to be packed with hands that are ahead of you equity-wise, like pocket pairs and stronger broadway cards.
Unless your opponents are total beginners, they aren’t likely to open-raise with a lot of weaker Qx hands like Q9 or Q8, for example.
QTo performs even worse if you happen to flat call with it from the blinds, because you’ll have a positional disadvantage post flop.
This means it’s going to be harder to fully realize your hand equity.
While your hand is likely to be slightly behind if you flat call an open-raise, it’s going to be completely crushed if you call a 3-bet with it.
Queen-Ten offsuit is hopelessly behind an average 3-betting range, so if you face a 3-bet with QTo, you should just fold your hand and cut your losses.
The only exception is if your opponent is wildly out of line and likes to 3-bet bluff a lot. But even then, you should at least call a 3-bet in position to have a fighting chance post flop.
Let’s look at an example hand to illustrate the point.
Example Hand #2
$1/$2 Cash Game, Effective stack size: 100 BB
You are dealt Q♣T♦ in the CO (cutoff). You open-raise to $5.
Villain 3-bets to $20 from the SB (small blind).
You: ???
You should fold.
Unless you have any specific reads on the villain and believe they’re out of line with their 3-betting, you should fold in this spot.
That’s because your hand is likely to be dominated post flop.
Let’s consider the villain’s range in this spot.
Without any specific reads, let’s assign them a standard 3-betting range of strong premium pairs, strong broadways, and a couple of 3-bet bluffing hands for balance.
Their range could look something like this: pocket Jacks or better, Ace-Jack suited or better, Ace-Queen offsuit or better, King-Queen suited, and maybe some 3-bet bluffing hands like A2 suited through A5s.
By the way: this is what the range abbreviation would look like:
AA-JJ,AKo-AQo,AKs-AJs,A5s-A2s,KQs
Against this range, QTo has only 30% hand equity. Again, this doesn’t mean you’re going to win the hand 30% of the time.
That’s because you’ll often be forced to fold the hand before getting to showdown and fully realizing your equity.
For example, if you miss the flop completely and villain fires a c-bet on the flop. Or you make a mediocre hand on the flop, call a c-bet, but you are forced to fold on the turn because your hand doesn’t improve.
Now, you may disagree with the range outlined above, and you may add or omit certain hands from the range.
But either way, you’ll have a hard time calling profitably in spots like these, unless you have some specific reads on the villain or if they have certain post flop leaks you can exploit.
If you’re having a hard time dealing with your opponent’s constant 3-betting and want to learn to read your opponent’s hand like a pro, enroll in Blackrain79 Elite Poker University.
You will learn the advanced hand reading techniques that will allow you to make disciplined laydowns with confidence, no matter how difficult a spot you find yourself in.
You will also learn when to go with your gut and make that huge hero call, or pull the trigger on that big river bluff.
This is in addition to 17 hours of advanced poker training, hundreds of step by step example hands and downloadable "cheat sheets" below all 50 videos.
If you are serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.
Get $100 OFF Use Code: ELITE100
Bad Poker Hand #4: Ten-Six Suited T♦6♦
A hand like Ten-Six suited and other similar hands fall into the category of suited junk.
A lot of amateur poker players will play just about any suited hand preflop for the prospect of catching a flush post flop.
But as discussed earlier, this is not a good long term strategy, since it’s exceptionally rare to make a flush in no-limit hold’em.
Another problem with chasing flushes with suited junk is the fact that you’re not drawing to the strongest possible flush.
This means that you run the risk of your opponent having a stronger flush than you, so you need to take the reverse implied odds into account.
Apart from the distinct possibility of making a mediocre flush, a hand like T6s has very limited nuts potential.
It can technically make a straight (since it’s a three-gapper), but it can only make it one single way.
This means that you’re far less likely to make a straight with T6s than with connector hands or even one-gapper hands.
If you flop a straight draw, it will more than likely be an inside straight draw.
The chance of flopping an inside (gutshot) draw with T6s is only 12.5%.
And gutshot draws simply don’t complete most of the time, since you only have four outs in the deck.
An out is a card you need to complete your draw. The more outs you have, the stronger your draw.
If you flop an inside straight draw, the chance of improvement from flop to river is only 17%.
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.
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.
If you use the rule of fours to calculate the chance of completing a gutshot straight, you would get 16%, which is quite close to your actual chance of 17%.
But even if you manage to hit your straight despite the odds, you still run the risk of having a second best hand.
That’s because your opponent can potentially have an even stronger straight.
For example, let’s say you are dealt T♦6♦ and you see this miracle flop: ♥♦♠♣
9♣8♦7♠
You’re still potentially losing to JT.
Apart from making mediocre straights and flushes, Ten-Six has very little going for it in terms of post flop playability.
For example, it will only flop top pair or better 12.3% of the time. And even then, you have a terrible kicker to worry about.
If you flop a top pair with T6, you are unlikely to get action by weaker Tens.
That’s because most players simply won’t play weaker hands like T5, T4 and so on.
But they may play a lot of stronger Tx hands that have you dominated, like JT, T9, or even T8, for that matter.
So even if you flop a top pair, you’re likely to only get action by hands that have you completely crushed.
Now, with all that said, T6s is not completely unplayable in all situations.
For example, you can play it when you’re trying to steal the blinds, especially if the opponents in the blinds tend to play too passively and not defend their blinds enough.
T6s does have some playability post flop in case your blind stealing attempt gets called.
However, calling a preflop raise with T6s is likely to be a losing proposition over the long run.
That’s because your hand will often be dominated by stronger Tx hands in your opponent’s open-raising range.
And the limited nuts potential does not justify the risk.
Check out my other article on hands you should never call with for much more.
4 Poker Hands You Should Avoid Like the PLAGUE - Summary
You don’t need to learn a lot of advanced poker strategy to make money in this game.
All you have to do is follow the simple tight and aggressive strategy, which includes being disciplined with the hands you choose to play preflop.
This means avoiding playing bad hands that are usually more trouble than they’re worth.
To sum up, here are 4 bad starting poker hands you should usually avoid playing.
1. Ace-Three offsuit
A3o and similar rag Aces can often get you in trouble post flop due to an inferior kicker. Even if you make a top pair post flop, you still run the risk of having only the second best hand.
Suited Aces have a much better post flop playability due to their great nuts potential, but you should still exercise caution if you have a weak kicker.
2. Three-Two suited
Suited connectors are great speculative hands that have more than one way of hitting the flop.
The problem with small suited connectors, however, is the fact that they make very weak flushes (and often weak straights), meaning you run the risk of your opponent ending up with an even stronger hand.
This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing small suited connectors.
3. Queen-Ten offsuit
Of all the hands on this list, this one may have the best playability, but you should still be careful not to overplay it.
You should be especially wary if another player 3-bets you, because QTo is likely to be dominated in 3-bet pots.
4. Ten-Six suited
T6s and similar hands fall into the category of suited junk. It’s very rare to make a flush in no-llimit hold’em, so you should avoid playing hands only for the prospect of catching a flush post flop.
T6 has weak playability post flop if it doesn’t make a flush, and if it connects with the board, it will make a mediocre pair at best, so you’re better off ditching this hand altogether.
---
This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at email@franferlan.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
