Head Games: How to Profit with Suited Connectors in Cash Games?

Craig Tapscott: When do suited connectors and one and two gappers become valuable hands to call raises or to raise with?

Reid Young: If we were able to graph the value of suited connectors versus our opponent’s raising position, we would see interesting results with more than one inflection point. Basically, this isn’t a cut and dry answer. The earlier position a player raises, the more defined and the stronger his opening range should be, simply because he has to get through more players. Against an early position raise, suited connectors have better implied odds or better chances to win a large pot. When you make a straight or a flush it is more likely we’ll be facing another player’s overpair or strong top pair type hand. There is more than one way to skin a cat and more than one time to play suited connectors profitably. The later position a player opens, the wider his range should be, because there are fewer players between him and winning the blinds.

When facing late position raises, suited connecters have less implied odds because of how unlikely it is we face a big pair type hand but are still valuable because the pairs they will flop have a much better chance of being ahead of our opponent’s flop betting range. Besides making pairs and better, we also will be able to find many opportunities to make semi-bluffs or bluffs based on equity we have in a hand.

Matthew Janda: Preflop you rarely want to think in terms of raw equity and instead want to think about what each hand does well and what each hand does poorly. Suited connectors and gappers are very good at making incredibly strong hands a small fraction of the time, and are very good at telling you when you need to see the turn and river to make the best hand. For example, when you do make a straight or a flush with a suited connector, it rarely happens on the flop. The hand will usually tell you “Hey, we’ve got a gutshot and a backdoor flush draw on this flop… you probably want to see the turn, as about two-fifths of the deck gives us either two pairs, trips, a straight, or a very good combo draw.” You need to be playing against the right opponents and have the right stack depth that calling or raising on a flop like that is possible. If you’re only going to get paid off a tiny bit when you hit, since stacks are shallow or you’re going to get terrible implied odds since there were too many players on the flop, you may want to fold them preflop.

Kyle Garner: Suited connectors are attractive and profitable because of their vast playability post-flop. These hands flop large amounts of equity relatively often, thus making them valuable combinations to hold. When they miss, they often will have backdoor equity, making them ideal hands to randomize with when bluffing. Any hand that is a bluff or a float on the flop that can become a value hand by the river is ideal when deciding whether to defend versus a flop continuation bet.

Stack size is definitely an important variable that should be given much thought when making decisions with suited connectors. If the effective stacks are less than 100 big blinds, these hands lose large amounts of value. This is because we need 100 plus big blinds to play three streets of poker. When effective stacks are less than 100 big blinds, absolute hand strength becomes more important than post-flop playability. I use 100 BBs as a reference point, because it is close to being the smallest stack size that allows you to float and bluff-raise on the flop and turn, while keeping a reasonable stack size to shove on the river.

Craig Tapscott: Many players fall a little too much in love with suited connectors. What are some mistakes you see players make?

Reid Young: Most players take the above concepts with a grain of salt and do not rely on the main decision factors to choose whether or not they should play connectors. Stack sizes are of paramount importance and so many people play the hands with the hope of making a straight or flush, even though they only get paid a small amount when they hit.

It’s a gambler’s fallacy; people remember the big wins and big hands and don’t focus on the small losses. The problem with playing these types of hands too often is the small losses often add up to be larger than the big wins. I touched on the value of semi-bluff situations created by having connected hands and outs on a given board. With this being one small piece of the puzzle that should add up to a profit, many players either don’t see the entire puzzle or don’t take the time to realize what all their “pieces” add up to in a poker game. Many players play poker to chase big hands; so it’s simply a matter of choosing whether to chase good hands for fun, likely losing money while you do it, or studying the ins and outs of the game and its situations to understand how and when you should play hands like suited connectors.

Matthew Janda: People assume suited connectors do way better than they actually do in multiway pots. A lot of the reason they are good is because they can peel effectively when they flop a pair, a gutshot, and/or a backdoor flush draw. That’s much harder to do when there are three or four players to the flop, especially when you’re out of position. Suited connectors work a lot better heads up than people give them credit for and the hands which work best multiway are usually hands which tell you immediately whether or not you have a great hand. This is the case with pocket pairs where I can fold if I miss and get a lot of value if I hit my set. Remember, suited connectors are good at making very strong hands a small fraction of the time, but in order to do this you need to be able to see the turn and river card for a reasonable price. This isn’t always possible if many other good players saw the flop, and it is especially risky calling with a marginal draw when there are many other players behind who can put in a raise and make us fold after just investing more money in the pot.

Kyle Garner: Suited connectors are “pretty” looking preflop, so some players fall victim to their appeal and forget how important position is when deciding whether to open them. For instance, in a relatively tough nine-handed game, 7-6 suited through J-T suited are most likely folds UTG/UTG+1/UTG+2. But, oftentimes players see these hands and open them even though table conditions dictate otherwise.

Another mistake I see players make quite often is calling three-bets with these hands versus players that are three-betting much too tight for them to show a profit, or just flatting these hands too wide in general. We would much rather three-bet 8-7 suited from the cutoff versus a mid-position open than flat. We then have the initiative, represent a stronger range, and reduce the frequency of which we get squeezed by the button or the blinds. Another problem if we flat these hands too often against aggressive and competent opponents, it will result in us getting barreled off our holdings and losing money. Be honest with your assessment of your post-flop play, if you’re not as skilled as one should be to make these scenarios plus EV, then fold. I hear players justify minus EV calls with suited connectors all the time by saying “I will crush him post-flop enough to show a “profit,” when that simply isn’t the case. Ego, while valuable in poker to an extent, can also cloud your ability to be as objective as possible. ♠