Stop Playing These 4 Fishy Poker Hands (Big Mistake!)

This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.

One of the easiest ways to spot a poker fish at your table is to pay attention to which hands they choose to play preflop.

If you see a player constantly reaching showdown with dubious holdings, it’s a clear sign they’re probably a recreational poker player.

This is especially the case if they happen to play the 4 hands on this list.

If you see someone playing these 4 hands, you can confidenty mark them as a fish right away.

Because no good poker player will ever play the following 4 hands.

Let’s get right into it.

Fishy Poker Hand #1: Jack-Four suited (J♥4♥)

Jack-Four suited and similar hands fall into the so-called suited junk category. 

Other examples are K♦️4♦️ or Q♠️5♠️

By the way, throughout this article I will use "s" for suited hands like J♥️4♥️ and "o" for off-suit hands like J♥️4♠️

Anyways, a lot of amateur poker player play virtually all suited hands for the chance of making a flush post flop.

But this “strategy” is likely to cost you a lot of money over the long run. That’s because it’s very hard to actually make a flush in no-limit hold’em.

The chance of flopping a flush with a hand like J4s is less than 1%!

You have a better chance of flopping a flush draw, but that is also quite unlikely.

The chance of flopping a flush draw with J4s is only 11%.

And even then, you have to rely on hitting one of your outs on future streets. The same is true for other suited hands, as well.

So playing a hand just because it’s suited is not a good idea.

And even if you manage to make a flush against the odds, you’re still not totally in the clear.

You can still potentially lose if your opponent has a stronger flush with any suited Ace, King, or Queen of the same suit.

That’s a huge number of combos to potentially worry about. Aside from the remote ability to make a mediocre flush, J4s has terrible playability post flop.

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Hands Like Jack Four Can't Make a Straight With Both Hole Cards

It can’t make a straight, so it has very limited nuts potential.

And if you don’t manage to flop a flush or a flush draw, the only thing you can hope for is to make a very weak pair of Jacks.

With a hand like J4s, you will only make top pair 8% of the time, and even then, you have a lot of overcards and a crappy kicker to contend with.

So can J4s ever be played profitably? 

For example, is it ok to blind steal with J4s on the button?

The answer is theoretically yes, but if you do decide to blind steal, it’s probably better to do so with hands that have a slightly better post flop playability.

Hands like JTo or J8s may fit the bill.

These are not great hands, but can still connect with the flop better than a totally trashy hand like J4, and they have a better kicker, which gives them a much better fighting chance.

Check out my video from last week on the only poker hands you should be playing.

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Fishy Poker Hand #2: Ace-Two offsuit (A♦2♣)

A lot of amateur poker players play just about any Ace for the prospect of making a top pair post flop.

Playing so-called “rag Aces” is hardly a profitable long term strategy for a few reasons.

First of all, even if you make a top pair with your weak Ax hands, you often won’t be able to win a huge pot with them.

A one pair hand is rarely strong enough to play for a huge pot with.

This means you won’t be able to get 3 streets of value with your top pair, since your opponents won’t be inclined to pay you off unless they happen to have a stronger hand.

For example, let’s say you are dealt A♦2♣ and the board runout looks like this:

A♥J♣8♠7♥4♣

Are you really going to be comfortable playing for a huge pot with only a top pair and a weak kicker to boot?

The answer is probably no.

This brings us to the second major problem with playing rag Aces, and that is the weak kicker.

A kicker is the card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can determine the winner if both players have the same hand.

For example, if both you and your opponent 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’ll make in no-limit hold’em, a kicker often determines if you win or lose the hand.

When you play A2o in particular, your hand will be dominated by all the other Ax hands.

You always want your hand to dominate your opponents, instead of the other way around.

Apart from the potential of making a mediocre top pair, A2o doesn’t really have much going for it in terms of its post flop playability.

Since it’s an offsuit hand, you can’t make a flush easily, and your chances of making a straight aren’t great, either.

The chance of flopping a straight with A2o is only 0.33%.

And even then, you can still potentially lose to a stronger straight if your opponent holds 65.

Playing A2o can be especially costly if you flat call with it preflop.

Calling too much preflop is one of the 5 dreadful amateur poker mistakes, most people still make. Especially when you do it with easily dominated hands like A2o.

If you flat call preflop with A2o, you will have to fold to a continuation bet every time you miss the flop (which will happen most of the time).

And if you hit a top pair, you can still lose if your opponent has an Ace with a stronger kicker.

Bottom line: A2o is a trash hand with very limited upside potential.

So does that mean you should avoid playing it altogether?

The answer is probably yes, but an exception could be made if you’re trying to steal the blinds when playing on the button.

When you blind steal, you aren’t trying to play for a huge pot post flop, but rather just take down the pot right away if your opponents fold too much to stealing attempts.

When you play on the button, you can often get away with playing a very wide range.

This can include even very marginal holdings like A2o.

Fishy Poker Example Hand #1

Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB

You are dealt A♦2♣ on the BU (button).

You: ???

You should open-raise to 2.5 BB.

In this spot, you can actually get away with playing a marginal hand like A2o.

That's because you aren't looking to play for a big pot post flop, but you're trying to take down the pot right away preflop.

A lot of players at the lower stakes won't defend their blinds with the right frequency, so they will often just fold to your stealing attempts.

However, if the players in the blinds are more aggressive and likely to fight back against stealing attempts, you should just make a tight fold instead, and only blind steal with the stronger parts of your range.

It's also worth mentioning that having a Two in your hand makes blind stealing slightly worse, because a Two blocks a part of your opponent's folding range.

This is why it's better to blind steal with a hand like A6o or A7o, instead.

Check out my blind stealing cheat sheet to learn how to pick up a lot of easy money preflop.

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Fishy Poker Hand #3: Queen-Ten Offsuit (Q♠T♥)

Queen-Ten offsuit is not necessarily totally unplayable, but a lot of recreational poker players tend to misplay it.

Put more precisely, they often overvalue and overplay this hand, which loses them money over the long run.

The problem with a hand like Queen-Ten offsuit is that it’s not really as strong as it seems.

It has very limited nuts potential, which means that you can’t win a huge pot with it very often.

One-gapper and two-gapper hands will make a straight significantly less often than connected hands.

Queen-Ten offsuit will only flop a straight 1% of the time.

The chance of flopping a straight draw is a lot better, but it’s still far from likely.

QTo will only flop an open ended straight draw and an inside straight draw 7% and 15% of the time, respectively.

Check out my other article on the 4 straight draw mistakes fish always make.

Another problem with QTo is that it will often be dominated by stronger hands.

This is especially the case in 3-bet pots, where players will usually play very tight and strong ranges.

In most low stakes poker games, players tend to 3-bet with only very strong hands.

For example, let’s say that a player 3-bets around top 5% of all starting hands.

Their range will probably include pocket Tens or stronger, Ace-Queen, Ace-King, and maybe King-Queen suited.

This is considered quite tight, but we’ll use this range as an example.

Against this range, QTo has only 26% equity (aka your odds to win!).

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can expect to win the pot 26% of the time.

You can only fully realize your equity if you take your hand to showdown every time.

And this simply won’t be the case in practice, as you’ll often have to fold if you face multiple bets from your opponent.

Fishy Poker Example Hand #2

You are dealt Q♠️T♥️ in the MP (middle position). You open-raise to 2.5 BB.

Villain 3-bets to 10 BB from the SB (small blind).

You: ???

You should fold.

Calling in a spot like this is unlikely to be unprofitable over the long run, especially if the villain is only 3-betting a very strong range.

Assuming the villain is 3-betting around 7% of their hands in this spot, your hand has roughly 31% equity.

Even when you’re playing in position post flop, it’s going to be very hard to realize your equity in 3-bet pots, as you’ll often have to fold to c-bets from your opponent if you miss the flop.

Of course, if you have some sort of a read on your opponent, or if you have a skill edge post flop, calling may be a reasonable option.

But usually, it’s better to err on the side of caution, and not get involved in spots where your hand can be easily dominated.

For example, let’s say you see the following flop:

Q♦6♣2♥

Even though you flopped top pair, you still can’t be too thrilled about your hand, as you still have a mediocre kicker to worry about.

You also have to dodge Aces and Kings on future streets, which make your hand relatively weaker.

So like other hands on this list QTo has only limited upside potential, but can cost you a lot if you overplay it.

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Fishy Poker Hand #4: Five-Two Suited (5♦2♦)

Five-Two suited is another suited junk hand that you should avoid playing at all costs.

Apart from the potential of making a very weak flush, there’s absolutely nothing redeeming about this hand.

There’s also a very remote possibility of making a straight, but that certainly doesn’t justify playing a hand like this.

The chance of flopping a straight with 52s is only 0.64%.

I have a personal gripe with this hand since I’ve lost quite a few big pots because of it.

And every time it happened, the players playing this hand were among the worst poker players I’ve ever seen.

Their justification for playing a hand like this would either be something along the lines of:

“You never know what the flop brings”,

Or even worse:

“It’s my lucky hand”.

As tilt-inducing as this may be, I drew some comfort in the fact that I’m obviously playing in a very soft, and very profitable game.

While it is true that any hand can smash the flop and potentially net you a big pot, the odds are not going to be in your favour if you keep playing junk hands hoping to get lucky.

While you may hit an occasional two pair or trips and catch your opponent off guard, it’s hardly a profitable long term strategy.

You’re going to miss the flop 2 out of 3 times on average, but if you play a lot of trashy hands, you’re going to miss the flop even more often than that.

And since you have to pay money every time to see the flop, the more flops you see, the more money you’ll lose over the long run.

And occasionally getting lucky with and making two pair with 52s is not going to make up for all the misses.

It goes without saying I didn’t try to explain any of this to my fishy friends at the table.

So are there situations where you can actually play 52s profitably?

I’d say the answer is no, unless you want to intentionally tilt your opponent.

But do so at your own peril, because poker gods are a vengeful lot.

If you want to know which hands you should actually play in all the table positions, check out my first book, Crushing the Microstakes.

4 Hands Only Fishy Bad Players Play - Summary

You don’t necessarily need to study a ton of advanced poker strategy to achieve decent results in this game (although it certainly won’t hurt).

If you want to get ahead of the majority of the players you play against, all you have to do is be very selective with hands you choose to play preflop.

This means not playing trash hands that will usually be more trouble than they’re worth.

To sum up, here are 4 poker hands you should avoid playing:

1. J♥️4♥️ suited

Jack-Four suited falls into the “suited junk” category.

A hand like this can often get you in trouble because you’re not drawing to the strongest possible flush.

Apart from the potential of making a mediocre flush, J4s has very little going for it in terms of post flop playability, so you should ditch this hand altogether.

2. A♦️2♣️ offsuit

Playing so-called “rag Aces” can often cost you a big pot due to the kicker problems.

Ace-Two offsuit can be dominated by all the other Ax hands, so it’s usually not worth playing at all.

Ace-Two suited is a much better option, since it has better post flop playability due to its great nuts potential.

3. Q♠️T♥️ offsuit

Unlike other entries on this list, Queen-Ten offsuit is not totally unplayable, but it can get you in a lot of trouble if you overplay it.

Queen-Ten offsuit is one of the weakest broadway hands, so it doesn’t perform well in 3-bet pots.

It also has a lot weaker nuts potential compared to some of the stronger broadways, so make sure to play it with caution.

4. 5♦️2♦️ suited

All the other hands in this article can be played in certain spots, but 52s irredeemable garbage, so avoid playing it altogether.

While this hand can theoretically make both a straight and a flush, the chance of it happening is so remote it’s not even worth considering.

---

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 fran.redline@gmail.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.

4 Poker Hands You Will Never See a Good Player Play

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 (the "o" stands for off-suit) 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.

By the way, if you want to learn all of the poker hands I suggest playing, I cover this in extensive detail in my BlackRain79 Elite Poker University.

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Reverse Implied Odds Explained

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.

These days, it's not enough to wait for around for premium hands to be a profitable long term winner in this game.

You also need to learn how to play in less than ideal circumstances, like playing marginal hands against aggressive players who won't just roll over.

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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.

---

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.

4 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 A♦️3♣️, 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 (off suit) 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 like A♦️3♦️, 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.

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• Learn how to read their hand in online and live games.

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Implied Odds and 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

4 Poker Hands That Are Costing You Money (Fix This Now!)

This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.

In no-limit hold’em, only about 20% of all starting hands are likely to be profitable over the long run.

If you want to improve your poker results quickly, the best way to go about it is simply being more selective with the hands you choose to play preflop.

This means you should avoid playing mediocre hands that are likely to cost you money over the long run.

In this article, we’ll go over 4 hands you should probably avoid playing preflop.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean these hands are totally unplayable under any circumstances. 

But they can put you in a lot of awkward spots post flop, so play them with caution.

Please note: 

Throughout this article when I say "o" this means offsuit (both cards are different suits). When I say "s" this means suited (both cards are the same suit).

Alright, let's jump into it!

1. Ace-Three Offsuit (A♥️3♣️)

Ace-Three offsuit and similar offsuit Aces aren’t likely to be profitable hands for you over the long run.

A lot of amateur poker players make the mistake of playing just about any Ace in the hopes of catching a top pair post flop.

But even if you make a top pair on the flop, you’re still not guaranteed to win the hand.

That’s because rag Aces have a very weak kicker such as a 2, 3, 4 etc.

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 hand combination.

For example, if both players make a pair of Aces, the player with a better kicker wins the pot.

Weak Aces will often be dominated by stronger Ax hands (X refers to any other kicker like K, Q, J etc.) 

A dominated hand is unlikely to win against a stronger hand due to an inferior kicker.



Your hand should always dominate your opponent’s, instead of the other way around.

In no-limit hold’em, the most common post flop combination you’re going to make is a single pair.

This means it’s crucial to know how to play one pair hands optimally if you want to be a profitable long term winner.

Your best bet is to avoid playing hands that can easily be dominated, which is certainly the case with rag Aces.

If you don’t make a top pair hand with rag Aces, your hand has very limited playability post flop.

Small rag aces (A2 through A5) technically have the ability to make straights as well, but this is also far from likely.

Strong combinations like straights simply don’t come around very often in no-limit hold’em, so relying on them is not enough to make a hand profitable.

Suited Aces, on the other hand, have a much better playability than offsuit Aces, because they have the potential to make nuts flushes.

The nuts refers to the strongest possible hand combination on a given board.

With suited Aces, you are always drawing to the strongest possible flush, so you don’t have to worry about the reverse implied odds.

Implied odds refer to the amount of money you can potentially make on future streets if your draw completes. 

Reverse implied odds refer to the amount of money you stand to lose if your draw completes, but your opponent ends up with an even stronger hand.

Small offsuit Aces often have to worry about reverse implied odds, because they will often be dominated by stronger Ax hands.

Playing rag Aces is even more problematic if you play them out of position (as a lot of recreational players often do).

Playing in position means being the last to act in a betting round.

A player in position has a significant edge over their opponents, because they have more information, they can control the size of the pot, and they can value bet or bluff more effectively.

Playing out of position makes it harder for you to realize your hand equity. So even if you make a top pair with your weak Ax hands, it doesn’t guarantee you’re going to win the pot.

By the way, if you're serious about taking your poker game to the next level I have just opened up enrollment in my new advanced training program, Play Fearless Poker.

This is my complete bluffing and aggression system for serious poker players who want to achieve world class results.

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• Learn when to bet, raise and bluff.
• Learn how to read their hand in online and live games.

Stop guessing. Start winning.

My brand new Play Fearless Poker training program includes 12+ hours of advanced poker lessons, 100+ step by step example hands and "cheat sheets" walking you through the exact strategies I use as a pro.

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Why Deep Stacks Matter

This is especially important if you’re playing cash games with deep effective stack sizes.

With deep effective stack sizes, single pair hands are vulnerable to getting outdrawn, and it’s hard for you to extract value over multiple streets.

Now, all of this is not to say that you should avoid playing rag Aces altogether. 

They can certainly be played profitably in certain situations.

For example, if you are open-raising from the late position and you’re trying to steal the blinds.

In a situation like this, you’re not really concerned about the post flop playability of your hand, because you’re aiming to win the pot outright preflop.

This means your hands strength (or lack thereof) is irrelevant.

What matters more is your opponent’s playing tendencies and your fold equity.

Fold equity simply means the percentage of time you expect your opponent to fold to your bet.

The bigger the fold equity the more often you can bet (i.e. bluff) profitably.

Example Hand #1

You are dealt A♥3♣ on the BU (button). 

You: ???

You should open-raise to 2.5 BB.

In this spot, open-raising with a mediocre hand is totally acceptable.

That’s because you aren’t really looking to play a big pot post flop, but take down the pot right then and there.

Since there’s only two players left to act, you can play a much wider range than you would from earlier positions.

If your opponents fold too often to stealing attempts, you can try to steal their blinds with a very wide range.

And even if you get called from time to time, you can still try to take down the pot post flop with a simple c-bet.

You’ll be playing the rest of the hand in position, meaning you can exert a lot of pressure by continuing to barrel on future streets.

By the way, check out my latest video for how to bluff them even if you're card dead!

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2. King-Nine Offsuit (K♦️9♣️)

A hand like King-Nine offsuit may seem playable at a first glance, but it’s likely to get you into a lot of difficult spots post flop you’re better off avoiding.

Similar to rag Aces, K9o has the potential of making a top pair post flop, but its mediocre kicker can often get you in trouble.

That’s because good poker players will never play a Kx hand with a weaker kicker, like K8 or K7.

This means that even if you flop a top pair, you aren’t likely to get action by weaker hands.

Instead, your opponent is more likely to show up with hands like KJ or KT that completely dominate you.

Playing a hand like K9o is especially troublesome if you flat call with it preflop.

When you call preflop, your range is capped, meaning there’s a limit on your range strength.

On the other hand, the preflop aggressor’s range is uncapped, meaning they can have a number of strong combinations in their range that dominate your hand.

Think hands like Ace-King, King-Queen and so on.

As mentioned, there really aren’t any Kx hands in their range you’re ahead of.

So even if you flop a pair of Kings, you’ll often just end up with a second best hand, which is the worst hand to have in poker.

Aside from making a mediocre top pair, a hand like K9o has very little going for it in terms of post flop playabilty.

You can’t make any flushes since it’s an offsuit hand, and you aren’t likely to make a straight, either.

That’s because there’s a big gap between your hole cards, so you can only make a straight one way.

The bigger the gap between your hole cards, the harder it is to make a straight and vice versa.

Check out my other article on how to play straight draws for a much deeper dive on this.

Example Hand #2

You are dealt K♦9♠ on the BU. 

A tight and aggressive (TAG) player open-raises from the (MP) middle position.

You: ???

You should fold.

Even though you’re playing on the button and can play in position post flop, you’re usually better off folding in spots like these.

If you call here, your hand will often be dominated by a lot of stronger Kx hands.

As mentioned, skilled players will never play weaker Kings in similar spots, especially from earlier table positions.

Another reason you shouldn’t call in this spot is the fact that you’re not the one closing the action.

You still have two players left to act behind you.

If one of the players is likely to 3-bet squeeze, you can’t really call a 3-bet profitably, meaning you’ll be forced to fold the hand anyway.

A squeeze preflop means 3-betting when there has been an open-raiser and at least one caller before you.

This is an incredibly powerful play.

And that is why it made #14 on the list of my 15 proven strategies for beating small stakes poker games.

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3. Three-Two Suited (3♦️2♦️)

Suited connectors are great speculative hands that can connect with the flop in a variety of different ways.

However, you should be careful when playing small suited connectors like Three-Two suited.

32s suffers from similar problems like other suited junk hands on this list, namely the fact that you are not drawing to the nuts, i.e. the strongest possible combination.

For example, if you make a flush with 32s, there are a number of stronger flushes that can potentially beat you.

This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account. 

Three-Two suited can also make a straight, but you’ll often be drawing to the bottom end of a straight.

For example: 

If you are dealt 3♦2♦ and the flop is K♥4♠5♣

You have an open-ended straight draw, and any Ace or Six gives you the straight.

However, if a Six rolls around on future street, your opponent can still beat you if they hold 87.

If you play small suited connectors, you’re running the risk of having only the second best hand.

These hands can be particularly troublesome because a lot of players simply can’t fold their hand if they get something they perceive as a strong hand (like a flush, for example).

Although a flush is a strong hand in absolute terms, you should also consider your relative hand strength.

Absolute hand strength tells you how strong your hand is in the overall hand rankings. For example, a single pair hand is weak, while a full house is very strong.

Relative hand strength, on the other hand, tells you how strong your hand is in relation to the board and your opponent’s ranges.

For example:

Let’s say that you are dealt 3♦2♦ and the board is:

K♦T♠8♦T♣5♦

You have a flush, but there are a number of stronger flushes that can potentially beat you. Also, the board is paired, so there are a number of possible full houses that beat you as well.

Now, let’s consider a different situation.

Let’s say you are dealt 3♦2♦ and the board is: 

A♠9♥4♦5♣T♥

Even though a flush is stronger than a straight in absolute terms, your hand is stronger on the second board. Now you have the nuts straight, meaning your hand is a lot stronger in relative terms.

When making decisions, you should always consider your relative hand strength, not just your absolute hand strength.

Recreational poker players tend to overestimate the absolute hand strength, while disregarding their relative hand strength.

This is why they often have trouble folding if they have something they perceive as a strong hand.

In fact, one of the most common amateur poker mistakes is calling down too much because they get too attached to their hands.

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4. Seven-Four Suited (7♠️4♠️)

Seven-Four suited is another hand that may look playable at a glance, but it is likely to cost you money over the long run.

It does have limited playability post flop, but even if you connect with the board, you aren’t guaranteed to make the best hand.

For example, if you make a flush with a hand like 74s, there are a number of stronger flushes that can potentially beat you.

This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing it.

74s can also make a straight, but it won’t make straights as often as connector hands, for example.

One-gapper and two-gapper hands make straights significantly less often than connector hands.

The bigger the gap between your hole cards, the less often they will make a straight post flop.

Even if you make a straight with 74s, your opponent can still potentially make a stronger straight.

For example: 

If the flop is 6♥5♣8♦ 

You are still losing to 97.

And as mentioned, strong hand combinations like straights and flushes aren’t likely to complete in the first place.

What will happen far more often is that you will either miss the flop completely or make a mediocre hand like second pair or third pair.

Hands like 74 suited will very rarely flop a top pair, and even if they do, you still have a weak kicker to worry about.

Also, single pair hands are vulnerable to getting outdrawn, so you won’t be able to extract a lot of value with them on multiple streets.

Bottom line: weak hands like 74s will either miss the flop completely, or make mediocre hands at best.

And even if you flop some kind of a draw, you’re often not drawing to the nuts, so you run the risk of having only the second best hand.

For these reasons, it’s best to ditch weak hands like these from your range altogether.

Instead, stick to playing hands that have better playability post flop, like suited connectors, for example.

Check out my other article on EXACTLY which hands you should play preflop for more info on the topic.

4 Poker Hands That Are Costing You Money - Summary

You don’t need to learn a ton of advanced poker strategy to be a long term winner in this game.

All you have to do is follow the simple tight and aggressive strategy which includes only playing strong starting hands.

This means you should avoid playing weak to mediocre hands that are likely to get you into a lot of trouble post flop.

To sum up, here are 4 hands that may cause you to bleed money over the long run.

1. Ace-Three offsuit

Rag Aces can often get you in trouble due to weak kickers.  

The most common combination you’re going to make in no-limit hold’em is one pair, so a kicker can often determine the winner of the hand.

Also, offsuit Aces have very limited nuts potential, so they don’t have great playability post flop. Suited Aces have much better nuts potential with the ability to make nut flushes.

2. King-Nine offsuit

K9o is a mediocre hand that will often have kicker problems. Decent players simply won’t play any weaker Kings, meaning your hand will often be dominated by stronger Kx hands.

King-Nine offsuit will also very rarely make a straight because there’s a huge gap between your hole cards, so it has very limited nuts potential.

3. Three-Two suited

Suited connectors have great playability post flop, with their ability to make both straights and flushes.

But the problem with small suited connectors is the fact that you’re not drawing to the nuts. This means you will often end up with only the second best hand, which is the worst hand to have in poker.

4. Seven-Four suited

Hands like 74s will very rarely make strong combinations like straights and flushes, and even if they do, you often won’t make the nuts with them.

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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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