Little Cards in Poker Can Often be Great Hands

I once read a saying by a very famous Irish poker player that went “the dog can overcome any edge as long as he gets his money in first”. Then it hit me, it did not matter that a 7-5 was a dog to A-K as long as you were aggressive with the 7-5. Let me give you a scenario of mine, one that has happened numerous times. The game is a $5-$10 NL Texas Hold’em poker cash game and is six handed.

It is folded around to me in the cut-off and I have 7-4 offsuit. Incidentally whenever I raise with junk, I always raise with hands that can make straights and flushes. I must stress that I will not simply raise with anything. If I did that then I would be simply raising too often and my opponents would start to play back at me more. I will muck hands like 9-2, 10-4, J-6,Q-5, etc etc.

I like cards that can make straights because they are deceptive and you can bust people with them. Especially hands that make belly buster straight draws. When a flop comes K-8-5 and then a 6 comes on the turn, nobody is going to put you on a straight with a 7-4. It is even better if they are suited because that gives you the extra flush chances if you get played with and can also mean that you can be more aggressive if you flop a flush draw.

One more important point, I don’t EVER re-raise with these hands. If it has been raised before it gets to me then I will simply fold or call, there is no point in trying to bang your head against a brick wall. If a guy has aces then he has aces end of story. I raise with these hands if there has been no evidence of strength up to that point.

Anyway back to the point, I raised to $40 with the 7-4 in the cut-off. The player on the button calls the raise because he feels that he has the best hand and that he has position and that escalating the pot is dangerous with a hand that is after all a drawing hand. These are all perfectly sound and logical reasons for his action with the A-K.

His play may work against a lot of poker players but not me for one simple reason. That is that I don’t go into my shell just because I get my pre-flop raise called like many players do. This is why you need to get your raising and aggressive frequencies right (more on that later) otherwise your bets are going to get called too often because you are being overbearingly aggressive.

I have passed for two rounds solid so it appears that I have a raising hand but A-K is too strong for him to pass so he calls my raise. The flop comes 9-8-3 missing me totally. There is $95 in the pot and I fire my usual 2/3 pot size bet (I do this whether I hit or miss, it leaves no pattern) of $60. This puts him to a very serious test, if he wants to continue then he is doing so with no hand. Even if he calls to hit an ace or king…..will it be the best hand even IF it hits?

It takes balls of steel that is rare in the poker world to re-raise on nothing when your opponent could be sitting there with a big hand. You look and feel a right wally when you get this wrong. The simplest and safest option is to simply pass.

Because my hand is deceptive, I can also take money off him in a variety of ways. But the point is that the disadvantage of my 7-4 over his A-K was totally wiped out all because I had the opportunity to apply the pressure first. It just goes to show that having position on someone is not always an advantage in online poker.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
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