Aggression with weak hands problematic

You can save yourself some problems at the poker table simply by not playing junky hands — or at least not playing them aggressively.

In a $2-$5 no-limit hold ’ em cash game, our Hero, sitting in middle position with a stack of $350, decided to raise to $10 with 10s 4s.

Right off the bat, Hero has made a mistake. His starting hand was much too weak to raise. It would be too weak a hand to raise even if you were on the button and everyone had folded to you. From middle position, it is far too weak. The only way Hero could justify playing such a weak hand is if he was incredibly deep- stacked and all the other players at the table were complete pushovers. Since Hero had only 70 big blinds, playing this type of a hand was like lighting money on fire.

The player in the cutoff seat (immediately to the right of the button) reraised to $35. The button called, and everyone else folded around to Hero, who called.

Just as Hero was foolish to raise with 10- 4 suited, he was foolish to call a reraise with it, even though he was closing the action and getting reasonable pot odds. When you’re somewhat shallow- stacked, you have to be patient and play either hands that stand to be stronger than your opponents’ hands, or hands that can easily outdraw your opponents’ premium hands. Hero’s hand didn’t fit either into either category.

The flop came Js 7c 2s, giving Hero a flush draw. He led for $50 into a pot of $112.

Leading with premium made hands and draws is a reasonable strategy that might make you difficult to play against. But given the stack sizes in relation to the pot, plus the generally uncoordinated texture of the flop, Hero should have checked, looking to checkraise all in. By betting $50 out of his remaining $315, Hero set himself up to be in a dicey spot going to the turn, having roughly 1.25 pot- sized bets remaining in his stack if one opponent called. If he instead check-raised all in, he would be able to make the bettor fold many non-premium hands, and if he were to be called, his flush draw would at least be live in most cases.

Both opponents called. The turn was 6h. Hero pushed all in.

After both opponents called, Hero had a pot- sized bet remaining — usually a nice amount to push all in. However, with both opponents calling on this uncoordinated board, it was safe to assume that at least one of them had a decent made hand that would not fold to Hero’s all-in bet. Hero also could have been up against a better draw, held by a player who might decide to optimistically call.

That said, Hero’s decision to push all in with his junky flush draw might have been his best option at that point, especially if he would also play his sets and two-pairs in this manner. Hero’s big mistake was made earlier in the hand, and his semi-bluff on the turn was probably the best of several unattractive options.

The player in the cutoff seat called with Qs Jd (top pair), and the player on the button folded.

The river was the 2h, and the cutoff collected a good- sized pot.