When you play Texas Hold’em, one of the first things you learn about is starting hand standards and poker hand rankings. These determine what two cards you’ll join a hand with, and which you’ll toss into the muck. When you’re super new, you might think that any two cards are fine to play. But as you develop your skills, you’ll quickly learn that many starting hands have a mathematical disadvantage.
Your poker strategy should be to avoid garbage hands and to stick to those that are statistically favored with a positive expected value (i.e., the underrated poker hands). Let’s run down the overrated hands that you will often be tempted to overplay, and that can cost you a bundle over your playing career.
Suited Connectors
Cards like JTs and 78s became something of a fad during the poker boom. Everyone was playing premium cards and might have been a bit too obsessed with tight play. Suited connectors offered the chance to make nice two-gapped straights and unexpected flushes with cards that few opponents saw coming. But as time has gone on, people have become wise to this move. Accordingly, the value of suited connectors has gone back down somewhat. Most often, you won’t flop a big hand, and you’ll be stuck drawing with undercards. That’s a pretty terrible spot to be in, and you need to weed it out of your game if you’re playing these cards in all positions with high frequency.
Small Pairs
Set mining again, are we? Well, this can be profitable, but like suited connectors, you’re most often sitting on a crappy pair. This isn’t going to win you many pots. You’re not going to want to bluff with it or reach a showdown holding a pair of fours. They play well in multi-way pots where the pot odds are nice or where you think that a player will take their slowplayed overpair right off the cliff. Aside from situations like that, a small pair is just what it says on the tin: it’s a low pair that won’t beat many other hands. Essentially, all it can do it beat a high card. Don’t play every small pair you get, especially from early positions.
Suited Cards in General
These cards might be saying “flush” to you, but in reality, that’s only going to happen 0.8% of the time on the flop. It’s not common. It’s really important not to chase big hands everywhere you go. You need to play solid cards and make game theory optimal (GTO) plays as much as you can. It’s the difference between long-term winners and long-term losers at the poker table.
Medium Pocket Pairs
These hands aren’t as bad as the small pocket pairs, but they can be more dangerous. The small pairs are obviously beaten a lot of the time by bigger pairs. But the medium pairs might be an overpair on the flop. The problem is that the player with AQ will continuation bet on a dry flop, and you’ll call with your overpair of 9s. Then, when the Q or A falls on the turn, you’ll be feeling pretty bad about your hand. Don’t get sucked in, and play these hands right.
Ace High (in Early Position)
You’re going to act first, and you’re not going to feel great about your high card ace on the flop. Even if you make your pair, you’re not going to have a ton of confidence. This is another trap hand where you’re really going to play yourself instead of the opponents. You might feel obligated to call modest bets with your high card or even your pair of aces and weak kicker.
Be careful of bleeding away small amounts when you aren’t in position with this hand. It plays a lot better from late position (like most hands do).
Pocket Rockets (AA)
They’re every poker player’s dream, but many people have a love-hate relationship with aces in the hole. You’ll love them and you’ll feel confident shoving preflop with them, but they just don’t always hold up, do they? And when there’s tons of action on a wet flop, they look even worse. They don’t draw to much of anything. They’re just a pair, at the end of the day. Aces are THE premium holding, but you really need to know that the siren song they sing has lulled many players to their doom at the bottom of the sea.
AK (aka “Big Slick”)
Looks great preflop, looks like trash when it doesn’t hit. And you’ll feel an obligation to c-bet with AK, too. When you get lots of action on your preflop raises and flop bets, you’ll worry that you are beaten by a made pair (anyone can beat you) or something even worse. They’re a hand that feels like the taxman of poker. Big Slick always takes his due and then leaves you high and dry half the time. Just play it smooth and muck it when you encounter enough resistance from the competition.
Ace-Rag
This hand plays somewhat well heads-up, but is awful in a ring game. You don’t really want to make anything with it, because that’s just going to be more money out of your stack. Maybe a straight is good, but that’s not something you’ll see much of the time with this hand. Stay away from it unless you have confidence in your ability to outplay opponents postflop. Be realistic, and you won’t get burned too much.
What’s Not Overrated?
Position. Position will change the outcome of so many poker hands. It puts you in the driver’s seat, allowing you to bet into checkers, raise the bettors, and see how everything has played out before you have to make a decision. Position is king in poker, and the cards come second. A hand that is unplayable in early position can win you many pots in late position. So, before you look at those hole cards, look at the thing that often matters most: what seat you’re in.
