One talked about hand play away from the Holdem table is the number of people who believe they need to play poor quality hands to show the table they are not as good players for deception. There are two common responses when this topic of playing poor quality hands come up.
One common response is, “The people you are playing with will not notice, so why bother.” This is true for a couple of reasons. In many Holdem games, especially games where no one is trying to make a living playing poker, the range of hands everyone plays is one of the last things players pay attention to.
The second response is generally, “Players are so clueless they will not know you played a bad hand, they will only know you won the hand.” This response is also true. The average Holdem player knows there is only a narrow range of good starting hands, but they are there to have fun and gamble. Playing good Holdem is not fun.
At an average Holdem table few players would notice if you left and a complete stranger sat down in your place. The dealer would notice of course, but that is another matter. Playing bad hands to show off how loose you can be needs to be weighed against another more important consideration.
If you play Holdem live, it is likely that the people you play against are regular players, and generally know what your range of hands is. One poor quality hand is not going to change their opinion of you if you are a tight player. If you play on line, stats do not lie.
A good reason not to play bad hands is the chip drain on your stack. Any two cards be played Preflop, sometimes for a minimal investment, most times not. The idea is to play a bad hand to the river to be seen by the rest of the players. Getting a poor hand to the river is expensive when you add up all the costs.
Playing bad cards to the river is usually done with the expectation of winning the hand, and dragging in the pot. The possibility of playing one bad hand to the river and winning is slight, and the chip bleed is expensive. Adding the Preflop, Flop, Turn, and River Bets is three Big Bets to the river if no one raises. Three Big Bets if there are no raises to be able to lay down bad cards for anyone watching to see.
That is the cost for one attempt. The hidden cost of bad hands is getting them to the river cheaply. Then there is the flop problem. No one is going to continue playing a bad hand such as 6,2 off suit when the flop is T,J,A. One Preflop bet may not seem like much the cost adds up quickly as you repeat the process trying to get a flop to fit your bad hand.
The cost of playing one single bad hand to the river is about an hours profit for a good player in a live Holdem game. Because it will normally takes more than one try to get ot the river, a good session can quickly change into a losing session by trying to show the table how bad you play.
If you feel the need to play bad starting hands, do it smartly. Do not play a bad hand unless two or more players have been replaced by new players. Use your watch, a set number of rounds, or dealer changes as a timer if player changes does not work. Play one bad hand only!
Play bad hands more often and you are showing the table your poor decision making in action. Play too many bad hands and players will start ignoring you. Players will play against you more often and they will get tricky. If you are a strong player on a strong draw this is a good news as you want the most players in the hand you can get. Most likely you are not quite at that level yet though.
The best thing you can do for your game is play bad hands right where they belong – Into the muck preflop. If you really want to gamble, playing bad hands is a sure way to get that big rush when a long shot comes through. If you are trying to play correctly however, playing one bad hand leads to playing many bad hands. Too many bad hands is the way home a lot quicker than you planned.
I heard it as I walked. I saw its shadow slide into dark corners when it thought I was not watching. Every now and then I could see it move from the corner of my eye. It followed me for blocks as I walked down one dimly lit street after another.