Final Table
General Strategy
Poker Lifestyle
Introduction
Early Stage
Middle Stages
Late Stage
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Full Tilt Poker | Read Full Review | Play Now |
9.3
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Titan Poker |
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9.0
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PokerStars | Read Full Review | Play Now! |
9.3
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| To play marginal hands or not to play? |
| Written by Tony Cooper |
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Many people over estimate the value of their holdings. This is particularly true of QK. QK is a 40/60 dog to A2. Surprising? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how long you have been playing. The point of this article is not whether or not you are going into the flop as a favourite, it is how much opportunity you are giving someone else to get lucky. If you reverse the roles then so that you are holding A2 and you are going to call against the KQ. You are a favourite sure, but the maths says that 4 out of every 10 times you are going to bust out and being as online tournament poker is most often about getting it all in with your good hands you can see why these types of hands are not good hands at all. In the early stages of a big field tournament, particularly the large $5 and $10 events with guaranteed payouts of up to 10k you have a lot of "dead money" in the prize pool. This is money that is contributed by many players who have never played tournaments before and have no idea what they are doing. They usually bust out in the very early levels playing KJ or KQ. These hands look so pretty but they are really big trouble for the serious player. Once you have made your first double up and made it through to the first break all you are looking to play is AA, KK, QQ or AK. Even the QQ should be looked at as being played simply for set value. All other pairs can be played to try and hit a set if you can get into the pot cheaply enough. As for flushes - you only want to be playing to hit the A flush. Several times I've busted out of big tournaments when I've made a flush only to discover I was playing against a bigger flush and this is gut wrenching when you have invested hours in a tournament. For the second level this is all the cards you need to play. The blinds are not yet high enough that you need to take any risks and you also have the opportunity to play any other cards in the blinds when you have limpers in front of you. The problem with playing anything else apart from pairs where you are looking to get it all in as fast as possible with the top two pairs and hit sets with the rest) is that you don't know who you are playing against. When you raise it up with AJ from mid position and get several callers you have absolutely no idea what you are up against. It's not a cash game where you can make notes on the other players and get a feel for how they play and you just don't know what you are being called with. It could be 56 suited or 10, 4 because they saw someone on TV make the same play and it seemed cool. At least when you raise it up with AK then you know you are in pole position when the Ace hits and you can bet with confidence. Leading out on the flop like this will induce most players to fold their weak draws. In essence, once you have settled into the game then the middle stage is all about patience and waiting. Many players, once they have amassed a stack of chips start donating them very quickly back to the table with a succession of raises and attempts to steal the blinds without thinking about what they are trying to achieve. What they should be doing is sitting tight and waiting for monster hands. There is no need to try and force the action because you have so many players willing to gamble with you once you do enter a pot. If you keep gambling with marginal hands then you may get lucky but it's much better to try and build a stack that will alow you to make marginal calls - say with AQ in the later stages when people start getting desperate and pushing in. |
| Poker Room | Review | Play Now! | Score | |
|
Full Tilt Poker | Read Full Review | Play Now |
9.3
|
|
Titan Poker |
Read Full Review | Play Now |
9.0
|
|
PokerStars | Read Full Review | Play Now! |
9.3
|