07-18-06, LearnTexasHoldem:

Trash Hands In Holdem

Question: Hi, I'm not sure if you have time or the interest to answer peoples questions but you seem like you enjoy helping people. I consider myself a good player. I think I am lacking in a couple of areas such as discipline. I play online mostly. Because I don't have a lot of money I find myself playing in the 25 and 50 dollar NL tables. I read about your three stages and found them very interesting. I do believe that I am in the third stage with the exception of having enough discipline. I have read about 20 poker books but believe my game has progressed past them, basically just because I think about the game so much. I am interested in possibly doing this for a living in the future when I have the appropriate bankroll. I think recently one of the problems I have is that I am falling in love with trash hands, suited (or one maybe two gap) connectors especially from bad position (again a downfall of lack of discipline). Do you have any advice that could help me improve my game. I also had a specific question trash hands and one or two gap connectors. Do you think it is worth the risk to play these hands and possibly take the a little to far to try to break someone, and possibly create a table image that could be profitable in the future. Thanks for taking the time to read my email and I hope to hear from you soon.

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Answer: For discipline, just tell yourself that whatever money you lose, it is going to have to be won back before you get ahead for the day. Poker is problematic because everything works sometimes, but not much works over the long haul. Bad play gets rewarded and that behavior is reinforced. Random reinforcement is the strongest kind of conditioning too, so get a handle on the discipline.

You'll find that there are two different challenges for playing cards successfully; one, having a sound strategy; two, applying said strategy day-after-day, month-after-month, year-after-year. It isn't rocket science, but it does take the right kind of person and perspective. The best advice I can give for playing for living is to have a large bankroll and play the weak tables.

What takes home the bacon, playing with Phil Hellumth or some drunk gamblers at half the limit size? When you get good, your own ego will be a problem. Your ego will get you into games that you shouldn't be at because the competition is too tough and your ego won't let you face your own weaknesses realistically. Poker always has the easy out of blaming a losing session on luck.

Now for junk hands, like 64, 53, 42, etc... In limit holdem your hands are tied a bit more with starting card selection because the upside for how much you may win with a hand isn't that great. You'll end up paying too much to see the flop relative to how much you might win if you get lucky. On other hand in no limit holdem cash games (note not tourneys), playing a hand like 53 can be profitable if you can get in for cheap.

I like hands that can flop hard to read straights. Often times too if someone didn't raise much preflop, there are hands like small pairs out there and weak Aces (A9, A8 and below). One of my favorite moves is to limp in with a crappy hand like 53 and flop a straight against someone else's two pair or set. A - 4 - 2 for example, against 44, 22, A4, A2, AK, etc. You can get unlimited action and usually you'll double up.

These hands would be considered trapping hands. A good trapping hand is one that is hard to see on the flop and also is strong when hits. So as long as you know what you are doing, playing these hands sometimes when the situations is right, isn't a weakness. Just don't do it in limit holdem.

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