Small Cards versus Big Pairs
October 14th, 2008
In Texas Holdem, as with most other poker games, often the amount of profit you show comes down to a matter of risk and reward: how much am I risking to win how much? While pot odds and implied odds are both important factors in determining your decision on how to manage a poker hand, there are benefits and disadvantages to styles that put emphasis on both made hands preflop and large drawing hands, defined by the flop.
While a lot of poker players, particularly new ones or ones less inclined to gamble, tend towards playing big made hands preflop, a lot of the time you see poker pros like Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen playing weird suited connectors and other hands more typically defined as weak. These hands, known for drawing, are attractive often because their risk is much more clearly defined: you either hit the hand and win a potentially large pot, or you miss it and have no trouble folding.
Playing small pairs and suited connectors are great in this way in that you can get in for a small investment and then don’t have to involve yourself when the hand doesn’t pan out, making the risk very small. Hands such as big pairs, which are often deemed the most coveted hands, can often end up breaking your stack just as easily as they can double you up. Therefore, the risk on these hands, while starting off as the favorite, end up perhaps putting you at a greater chance of risk, unless you a really great reader of opponents.
Entry Filed under: Funny Farm, Life Of Games, Web Of Gambling