05-26-04, LearnTexasHoldem:

Minimum Buy-in and High Hand of the Hour

Question: Hello, my name is dylan. I have benn playing the game for 4 months now, although all of that time was concentrated on no limit home games (im new to the actual casino play. Today i was at a 2/4 game and i barely had enough just to buy in. About 1-2 hrs go by and i get dealt 83os (in late position) for some reason i fealt like playing that hand but i didnt because players at the table were known to raise pre-flop frequently. Well long stry short the flop came and i woulda hit top pair, the turn and the river were also 8's. So there was my 4 of a kind that i missed out on. The only thing that really made me mad was that the highest hand of the day gets payed out $1000, and there were only 20 mins left on that day with 4 3's in the lead! Did i make the right call? Should i not buy-in with the minimum anymore? I also missed a full house the hand after that.

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Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks

Dylan

Answer: First of all, you made the right move by passing with the 83. In poker you'll fold a lot of hands that would have won but there isn't anyway to avoid it. You never know what cards will flop so the only way to make money is to play strong hands.

Next, on the subject of playing an 83offsuit in hopes of getting the high hand of the hour, you are much less likely to have a big hand with 83off then with a good hand. Also you'll end up losing more money trying to chase a high hand of the hour with bad hands then you'll end up getting paid if you win. I would recommend just playing the best poker you know how to and then letting the high hand of the hour run it's natural course.

If you play enough poker, you'll eventually have the high hand. It's just a matter of time and you can't rush it. Now about the minimum buy-in, at a 2/4 I think that is only $20. That is definitely not enough to play well with. In two hands you'll be out of money unless you win. When you play 2/4, definitely buy-in for a rack ($100). I would probably take $300 with me to play 2/4.

30It isn't uncommon to lose your first rack and then still have a winning day. I pretty much do that every time I play. I never start out by winning. Poker is a game of small edges and you'll have fluctuation. If you don't have enough money to buffer that variance then you'll never give yourself a chance to win.

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