I'm fairly new to Texas Holdem, so I try to play by the book as much as possible. I tend to play a tight, aggressive "conservative" style, which works great as long as I'm getting some good cards to play. I'll just wait for the premium hands and attack the more aggressive players. Usually by the first break, most of the table is folding to my raises. I just placed 5th in a $100 freeroll and 10th in a $30 freeroll this afternoon using this style of play.
PROBLEM:
Then there are those occasions where I can't buy a decent hand. I'll start out waiting for the big hands, folding hands like A3, QT, T9s, J9s, etc... which sometime are the best hands I'll see for a tournament. Whenever I find myself in this situation, it plays out in 1 of 2 ways... but always ending with an early exit from the tourney.
a. I continue to wait for the big hands until my stack is so small I end up pushing all-in, with the best hand possible. (KTs, AT, A9, Q9s, etc...) Of course the big stacks often call and even if they dont have the best hand, they end up winning it on the river or with Ace high.
b. I become impatient and try to limp in with mediocre hands. If the flop opens up some possibilities, such as a Flush. I will often chase, 4-Suited all the way to the river calling any small bets along the way. (Hence the nickname 4FlushCrush).
- 4FlushCrush
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9 comments
Where's TC when you need him? LoL I may have included too much info... if so, I'll just have to repost and edited version tomorrow. :-))
I think you hit the nail on the head, libertytexan. Instead of limping, I should be playing these weaker hands like I would a "top" hand such as AK. I think I've been too worried about losing the hand if someone calls my "semi" bluff with a better hand. Now I realize that I can either make a play to better my situation OR keep on waiting for a "top" hand to play until I have no choice but to push all-in. At this point, I wont have enough chips to keep anyone from calling with any hand.
Thank you for all the feedback Railbirds!
I would give you my advice but as you know I cannot count or read properly lmao!
All kidding aside, I am with liberty he/she hit it and you need to play aggressively.
4Flush,
I have the same problem... looking forward to hearing what results you get from trying some of these suggestions.
When the cards just won't come for you, it is even more important than ever to play your position strong ! You have to keep up with the blinds, to have any fold equity ! If you are playing with reasonably skilled players, they will see you only playing a limited number of pots, and respect your raises !
I think it pays to play a few speculative hands if you can get in to see a flop cheap early in a game. To hit two pair, or trips, with suited connectors will crush someone who isn't expecting you to play those hands.
One of the hardest things to learn in poker, is to play lower or weaker cards like they were a strong starting hand, but we have all heard it before, you have to play the player, more than the cards ! This means raising in position sometimes, and collecting a pot, when you really don't have the cards to support the raise, but you feel your opponent will fold to a raise !
If the board is scary, use it to your advantage, when you combine a scary board with position on a player, you have a strong chance of winning a pot, with any two cards ! Just don't try to power out more than one, or at the most two players, because more than that, and you will usually have a hand against you strong enough to call !
....play on ...Tc...
Of course if your luck runs like mine you only get those cards in early position where there is no doubt that you should fold them and get really bad cards in late position.