Stop Playing Junk!

If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out Jonathan Little’s elite training site at PokerCoaching.com/CardPlayer.

I was recently told about a poker hand that illustrates a few disastrous errors some poker players make on a regular basis.

In a $5-$10 no-limit hold’em cash game, our Hero decided to raise to $20 out of his $700 stack with 10 4 from the hijack seat.

10 4 is much too weak to raise, even when everyone folds to you on the button. From the hijack, it is far too weak. The only time Hero can justify playing such a weak hand is when he is incredibly deep stacked and everyone else at the table folds much too often to aggression. Hero will have a difficult time winning at poker if he consistently plays junky hands preflop.

The player in the cutoff three-bet to $70. The button cold called and everyone else folded around to Hero, who also called.

Again, 10 4 is way too weak to call, even closing the action getting decent pot odds. When playing somewhat shallow stacked, you simply must be patient and play hands that stand to be stronger than your opponents’ range or hands that can easily outdraw your opponents’ premium hands. 10 4 does not fit in either of these categories and should be deposited into the muck.

The flop came Q 7 2, giving Hero a flush draw. Hero led for $100 into the $225 pot.

While leading with a polarized range of your premium made hands and draws is a reasonable strategy that may make you difficult to play against, given the stack sizes in relation to the pot plus the uncoordinated texture of the flop, Hero should check, looking to check-raise all-in.

By betting $100 out of his $630 stack, Hero set himself up to be in a dicey spot on the turn, having roughly 1.25 pot-sized bets remaining in his stack if someone calls. If he instead check-raised all-in, he would be able to make the bettor fold many non-premium hands and when he happens to get called, his flush draw will usually be live.

Both opponents called. The turn was the 6. Hero pushed all-in for $530 into the $525 pot.

Once both opponents call the flop, Hero has a pot-sized bet remaining, which is usually a nice amount to push all-in. However, when both opponents call on this uncoordinated board, you can be certain that at least one of them has a decent made hand that will not fold to Hero’s all-in on a blank turn. Hero may also be against a premium draw that will call off.

That said, pushing all-in with Hero’s junky flush draw may still be the best play, especially if he would also play his sets and two-pairs this way. While Hero’s turn semi-bluff may be acceptable, getting to this point in this manner was certainly an error.

The cutoff called with K-Q and the button folded. The river was the 3, giving Hero the pot, which will likely result in him continuing to play junky hands preflop, which will eventually result in him losing all his money. ♠

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Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT winner and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.