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Even the best poker players in the world make mistakes, and when
these mistakes are not
corrected, they can develop
into "leaks" that
can easily sink your game.
There are two leaks in
particular that I see all the
time with regard to Hold ’em
starting hands that people
play but would be better off
folding. The first of these
two leaks involves playing
easily dominated hands.
Domination in Texas Hold ’em
is death, so you must make an
effort to fold potentially
dominated hands pre-flop if
another player has voluntarily
entered the pot. This concept
spins off of David
Sklansky’s "Gap
Principle", which
essentially says that the
range of hands you’re
willing to raise with should
be wider than the range of
hands you’re willing to call
with. For instance, if
everyone folds to me and I
have K-Q off-suit on the
button, I’m going to raise.
It’s likely the best hand,
and I give myself a chance to
steal the blinds. However, if
a middle position player
raises before the flop, I’m
going to throw that K-Q away
quickly. That K-Q is very
easily dominated by the hands
my opponent is likely to raise
with in middle position, such
as A-K, pocket Kings, pocket
Aces, pocket Queens, and A-Q.
These are hands that K-Q will
have a very difficult time
beating, and if we both flop a
pair, I could be in severe
trouble and lose my entire
stack. To further illustrate
this point, here’s a
mathematical look at why a
theoretically powerful hand,
if dominated, is worse than
playing random rags. Say my
opponent raises in first
position with A-K and it folds
around to me on the button
with 7-2 off-suit, the worst
hand in poker. If I call
there, I’m about a 65-35
underdog. Now let’s say I
have A-Q on the button facing
that same raise from A-K. Now
my hand is about a 75-25
underdog, which is
significantly worse than if I
had 7-2. It’s not easy to
fold A-Q to a single raise
pre-flop, but if the raise is
coming from early position and
you have reason to believe
your opponent has a premium
hand, A-Q could easily be
dominated. More to the point,
that next tier of starting
hands—K-Q, Q-J, Q-10, K-10,
K-J—those are hands you
should just throw away if your
opponent opens the pot for a
raise. The other leak
involving starting hands that
I see frequently is
overvaluing suited hands. I
see players with A-5 suited or
8-7 suited and they play the
hands because they think they
might flop a flush. In
reality, when you’re suited
you will only flop a flush
about one out of 121 times.
That’s about 0.84 percent of
the time. It does not happen
very often. And even when it
does happen, you’re not
likely to win a big pot. If
you take a hand like A-5
suited and compare it to A-5
off-suit, in reality, against
the range of hands your
opponent might be playing, it
only adds about two to three
percent to your expectation of
making the best hand. So
don’t be fooled by being
suited. Just because the hand
is suited does not mean that
it is playable. The ranks of
the cards are much more
important than whether or not
your hand is suited. When
making your pre-flop
decisions, if you can resist
the urge to play hands that
are likely dominated and
resist the urge to play
mediocre suited cards, I think
you’ll find yourself playing
a more profitable brand of
poker in the long run.
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