This article was written by blackrain79 contributor Fran Ferlan.
One of the most common amateur poker mistakes is playing too many hands.
If you want to improve your poker results quickly, the easiest way to do it so simply avoid playing hands that are often more trouble than they’re worth.
In this article, we’ll examine 4 such hands, figure out why they’re so troublesome, and should you bother playing them altogether.
Let’s get right into it.
Bad Poker Hand #1: Ace-Two Offsuit A♥2♣
Ace-Two offsuit falls into the category of “rag Aces” i.e. weak Ax hands you should probably avoid playing.
A lot of amateur poker players make the mistake of playing just about any Ax hand for the prospect of catching a top pair post flop.
But this can often end up backfiring, so it’s usually best to avoid playing this hand altogether.
The reason why a hand like A2o can often get you in trouble is its bad 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 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.
And since one pair is the most common hand combination you will make in no-limit hold’em, your kicker will often determine if you win or lose the hand.
If you play a hand like A2o, your hand can be dominated by all the stronger Ax hands.
A dominated hand is the one that’s unlikely to win against a stronger hand due to a weaker kicker.
You always want your hand to dominate your opponents’, instead of the other way around.
So if you find that you often seem to have only the second best hand, it may be because you’re playing too many hands with bad kickers.
Apart from the potential to make a top pair hand, A2o doesn’t have much going for it in terms of post flop playability.
It does have a limited nuts potential, with the ability to make a straight.
But the chance of making a straight with A2o is slim at best.
The chance of flopping a straight with A2o is only 0.33%.
That’s because A2o can make a straight only one way.
Contrast that with hands like 87s or 65s that can make a straight 4 different ways. For this reason, hands like suited connectors have a much better post flop playability.
This is something I discuss in more detail in my article on how to play straight draws.
A2o can’t flop an open-ended straight draw, and it can only flop an inside (gutshot) straight draw.
The chance of flopping a gutshot straight draw with A2o is only 11.3%.
And even if you complete your straight (on the flop or on future streets), you still run the risk of drawing to the second best straight.
Your opponent can still theoretically hold 76 which beats you.
So the problem with playing a mediocre hand like A2o is that you won’t flop anything decent most of the time, and even if you do, you still run the risk of only having the second best hand.
So it’s better to avoid those marginal spots altogether and simply fold your hand preflop.
If you have a suited Ace, on the other hand, you can play that hand much more profitably.
That’s because suited Aces have a great nuts potential, with the ability to make the strongest possible flush.
This means you don’t have to worry about reverse implied odds when playing suited Aces.
Implied odds refer to the amount of money you can potentially earn on future streets if you complete your draw.
Reverse implied odds refer to the amount of money you stand to lose if your draw completes, but your opponent ends up having an even stronger hand.
The only time you have to worry about reverse implied odds when you have a suited Ace is when the board pairs, giving your opponent the opportunity to make a full house.
But these situations are extremely rare, and if they do happen, it’s usually just a cooler, so you shouldn’t pay to much attention to it, anyway.
A cooler is a spot where you have a very strong hand, but your opponent ends up having an even stronger hand.
But if you play a hand like A2o and lose to a stronger hand, that definitely does not constitute a cooler.
That’s because playing a mediocre hand like A2o is likely to be -EV over the long run, so it’s better to avoid playing it altogether.
With that in mind, A2o can still be playable in some situations, but you still have to approach these spots cautiously.
For example, you can still steal the blinds with A2o if you’re playing on the button.
To blind steal means to open-raise in late table positions (the cutoff, the button, and the small blind) with the intention of getting the blinds to fold and taking down the pot preflop.
Check out my ultimate blind stealing guide for everything you need to know on the topic of blind stealing.
When you’re playing on the button in particular, you can often get away with playing an insanely wide range.
That’s because you will always play in position post flop when on the button.
This will allow you to apply a lot of pressure on your opponents, and rake in a few pots even without a particularly strong hand.
When blind stealing, your hand strength (or lack thereof) is often irrelevant.
What matters more is the playing tendencies of the players in the blinds.
If your opponents overfold to blind stealing attempts, you can basically blind steal with any two cards.
Take this with a grain of salt, of course.
You still don’t want to blind steal with hands that have very poor playability when called.
But often enough, you can get away with playing quite a wide range on the button, especially if the players in the blinds aren’t likely to adjust.
Bad Poker Example Hand #1
You are dealt A♥2♣ on the BU (button).
You: ???
You should open-raise to 2.5 BB.
If the players in the blinds are too weak and aren’t likely to call or 3-bet you often, you can get away with open-raising a mediocre hand like A2.
I wouldn’t go so far to open-raise A2o from the CO (cutoff), let alone earlier table positions, but open-raising it from the BU can be profitable.
This is going to depend mostly on the playing tendencies of your opponents.
If your opponents are aggressive and likely to 3-bet you often, you’re better off just folding your hand and waiting for a better spot.
I actually discuss this in my latest video, 9 easy poker strategies EVERY decent player should know.
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Bad Poker Hand #2: Three-Two Suited 3♦2♦
Suited connectors are great speculative hands that can connect with the flop in a lot of different ways.
Speculative hands are the ones that aren’t strong enough in and of themselves, but can make strong combinations post flop like straights and flushes.
However, the problem with small suited connectors like 32s is that they won’t make the strongest possible combination even if they do connect with the flop.
So like with other hands on this list, you’re running the risk of only having the second best hand.
This is especially the case if you’re drawing to the flush.
When you’re drawing to a flush with 32s, you’re drawing to the weakest possible flush.
Any other suited hand of the same suit can potentially beat you. That’s an insane number of combinations you need to potentially worry about.
This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing small suited connectors.
You will encounter a similar problem if you’re drawing to a straight.
Unlike A2o, Three-Two suited can theoretically flop an open-ended straight draw.
But the chance of that happening is extremely thin.
32s will flop an open-ended straight draw only about 3% of the time.
You have a better chance of flopping a gutshot draw, but the problem with gutshot draws is that they’re way less likely to complete than open-ended straight draws.
The chance of flopping a gutshot draw with 32s is 12.6%.
And even if you do manage to make a straight, you still run the risk of only having the second best hand.
For example, let’s say you are dealt 3♦2♦ and the flop is: 6♥5♠4♣
You’re still potentially losing to a hand like 87, or even 73 for that matter.
Apart from the ability to make mediocre straights and flushes, 32s doesn’t have a lot going for it in terms of post flop playability.
It can only make small pairs with terrible kickers, so it’s highly unlikely to be profitable over the long run.
As mentioned, the most common hand combination you’ll make in no-limit hold’em is one pair.
So the most profitable hands are going to be the ones that have the ability to make strong pairs with good kickers.
This way, your hand will dominate your opponents more often than the other way around.
A hand like 32s is especially useless in tournament or heads-up poker.
In tournaments, the effective stack sizes are usually a lot shallower than in cash games, especially in later stages of the tournament.
This means your speculative hands won’t have the necessary implied odds to be played profitably.
Speculative hands prefer deep stack sizes, because you want to get your money’s worth if you do manage to hit a strong combination like a straight or a flush.
Three-Two suited also has terrible showdown value, which makes it virtually unplayable in tournament settings.
A hand with showdown value is the one that’s not strong enough to value bet with, but can often win at showdown unimproved.
For example, Ax hands have decent showdown value because in the event of both player missing the board completely, you can still win the pot with an Ace-high hand.
This is especially important in tournament settings, because you will sometimes have to put your tournament life on the line by going all-in preflop.
You can’t do this profitably with weak speculative hands like 32s, because they will have terrible equity when called by virtually any other hand.
Three-Two suited is also close to unplayable in heads-up poker or short-handed poker for similar reasons.
Heads-up poker refers to the game format with only two players, while short-handed poker refers to a format with less than 6 players on the table.
In a heads-up format, strong broadways and especially Ace-high hands go up in relative value.
That’s because players are not likely to have anything decent most of the time when playing heads-up.
This means that Ax hands go up in value because they serve as great bluff catchers.
And if you do hit a pair of Aces post flop, you are likely to have the best hand most of the time.
Three-Two suited doesn’t perform well in a heads-up format because it can’t make strong pairs post flop, and it also has terrible showdown value against virtually any other hand.
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Bad Poker Hand #3: Ten-Four Suited T♣4♣
Ten-Four suited and similar hands fall into the “suited junk” category.
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 strategy ends up backfiring more often than not.
If you play every suited hand along with the other hands you should play preflop (like pocket pairs and broadway hands), this means you’re playing roughly 40% of all starting hands in no-limit hold’em.
If you play this many starting hands, you are guaranteed to lose money over the long run, period.
That’s because most hands miss most flops in no-limit hold’em, and suited (junk) hands are no exception.
The chance of flopping a flush with a suited hand is less than 1%.
You have a better chance of flopping a flush draw, but that is also unlikely.
The chance of flopping a flush draw with a suited hand is only about 11%.
And even then, you have to rely on hitting one of your outs, which also won’t happen most of the time.
So when you play a hand like T4s, you’re just going to have to fold on the flop a large majority of the time.
Even if you do manage to make a flush, you’re still not in the clear, due to the reverse implied odds.
If you make a flush with T4, you are potentially losing to any suited Jack, Queen, King, or Ace.
That’s an insane number of combinations you have to worry about.
Again, like with other hands on this list, you’re going to miss the board completely most of the time, and if you do connect, your hand can end up being more trouble than it’s worth.
If you don’t flop a flush or a flush draw, a hand like T4 doesn’t have much going for it in terms of playability.
It won’t make a top pair nearly as often as stronger broadway hands, and even if it does, you still have a bunch of overcards and a terrible kicker to worry about.
It also can’t make a straight, so it has very limited nuts potential.
So is there a spot where you can actually play this hand profitably?
The answer is yes, but again, you still need to be careful not to overplay it.
Like with other hands on the list, it can be a decent blind stealing hand, provided the players in the blinds are likely to overfold to stealing attempts.
You can also defend your big blind against stealing attempts from the small blind.
Bad Poker Example Hand #2
You are dealt T♣4♣ in the BB (big blind). SB (small blind) open-raises to 3 BB.
You: ???
You should call.
When playing in the big blind against the small blind, you can defend your blind with quite a wide range.
There are two reasons for this.
First of all, the small blind’s open-raising range is likely to be quite wide to begin with, so you can get away with defending a wider range, as well.
Secondly, you’ll be playing in position post flop, which gives you more options to win the pot one way or the other.
3-betting a hand like T4s might be too optimistic, but folding may leave you vulnerable to getting exploited.
When playing in the big blind against the small blind, you should adopt a polar 3-betting strategy.
This means you 3-bet for value with your strong hands and 3-bet bluff with your weak hands that you don’t want to see the flop with.
Anything in between, you just flat call and play some poker post flop.
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Bad Poker Hand #4: Six-Five Offsuit 6♦5♠
Offsuit connectors do have limited post flop playability, but a hand like 65o is likely to be too weak to be worth the trouble.
This hand suffers from many problems like other hands on the list.
First of all, it has very limited nuts potential.
Since it’s an offsuit hand, it can’t make a flush (at least not as easily as suited hands), and it can make a mediocre straight at best.
When playing 65o, you will often draw to the so-called bottom end of a straight, meaning there’s a potentially stronger straight out there that can beat you.
Unlike some other hands on the list, 65o will flop a straight draw slightly more often, but this alone does not justify playing it.
Six-Five offsuit will flop an inside straight draw and an open-ended straight draw 9.7% and 16.8% of the time, respectively.
With that in mind, you still need to be aware that you’re not always drawing to the strongest possible straight, so you need to take the reverse implied odds into account.
As far as the nuts potential of this hand is concerned, this is all there is to it.
If you don’t flop a straight or a straight draw, your hand is virtually unplayable.
65o can’t make any strong pairs, which severely limits its post flop playability.
65o will flop a top pair only a measly 2% of the time.
And even then, you still have a weak kicker and an insane number of overcards to worry about.
The pattern should be familiar by now: all of the hands on the list will usually just miss the flop completely, and even if they connect, you’re going to make a mediocre hand at best.
A hand like Six-Five suited will have a much better playability that its offsuit counterpart, mainly due to the fact that it will have a much better nuts potential.
Six-Five suited will flop a flush draw 11% of the time.
Due to its nuts potential, 65s has great playability even against very strong hands.
For example, against the range of Ace-King and pocket Jacks or better, 65s has a healthy 30% equity.
That’s because the outs you need to make a straight aren’t going to be blocked by your opponent’s strong range.
This is one of the reasons why 65s made it to my list of my 4 most underrated poker hands you should play more often.
4 Poker Hands You Will Never See a Good Player Play - Summary
You don’t need to learn a lot of advanced poker strategy to start winning consistently at poker.
All you need to do is be disciplined with your starting hand selection, and learn how to get max value out of your strong hands.
This means you should avoid playing weak to marginal hands that are likely to lose you money over the long run.
To sum up, here are 4 bad poker hands decent players will (almost) never play.
1. Ace-Two offsuit
Rag Aces can often get you in trouble post flop due to a weak kicker. If you play A2o, your hand is dominated by all the other Ax hands.
You always want your hand to dominate your opponents, instead of the other way around. That’s why it’s best to just avoid playing hands with weak kickers.
3. Three-Two suited
Suited connectors are great speculative hands that can hit the flop in more than one way, but the problem with small suited connectors like 32s is that you’re drawing to very weak straights and flushes.
This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing small suited connectors, meaning they’re often more trouble than they’re worth.
2. Ten-Four suited
Ten-Four suited falls into the “suited junk” category. Suited hands won’t make a flush nearly as often as you might hope for (the chance of flopping a flush with a suited hand is less than 1%).
And even if you make a flush, you can still potentially lose to a number of stronger flushes, so this hand is unlikely to be profitable over the long run.
4. Six-Five offsuit
Offsuit connectors are not totally unplayable, but they suffer from similar problems like other hands on this lis.
65o has a very limited nuts potential, and if you don’t flop a straight or a straight draw, your hand has very little going for it in terms of playability.
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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
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