Playing Small Cards

One of my favorite things to play is small suited cards!!!! I love to play these because if you call a raise or raise with them it's almost impossible to see, so if you hit something you'll almost definately get paid off . Also, if you don't hit the flop it's very easy to lay down.

Now with say a 56s or 57s(my favs) if you have enough nerve to raise with these or call a raise(You wouldn't want to risk too many chips with this so not a large raise), and you hit it's over!!!! For example, i was in a home game a lil while back and had 57s and opponent had AA. He raised a lil amount before flop and i called. Flop was KJ5(rainbowed), he bet same amount as before and i called. The next card was a 7. He bet, I raised, and he pushed all-in, so I beat him with my 2 pair. Of course, he was mad and said "haha a 57 wtf were you calling with a 57 for", "horrible play", but i had best hand and he was beat and out of tourney.

Also, these are the best types of hands to play in multi-way pots or pots with three or more players. Most times when more than 2-3 people enter a pot they have either a pocket pair or high cards. Well the best hand against pocket aces is 56s, and if they all have high cards the majority of the time they'll have the same ones, which eliminates their outs. Therefore leaving you with a good chance to hit your cards or as most say "suck out" your opponent.

Finally, they are the easiest hands to lay down!! If you have 78s and flop comes KJ3 you can lay it down without thinking, but say you were in pot with K7 it might be hard to lay this down. And if your opponent had AK you would be in serious danger of losing your chips.

By the way, i wouldn't recommend you playing this hand if you're a beginner or have very little chips/money to play with.

If you play hands like 57s, you are going to lose more times than not, and end up losing money. Now you might get lucky every once in a while, but not that much. There is a reason that people play the hands like pocket pairs or two face cards. It is because these are the best hands and most likely to win. Now maybe with suited connectors in a good position with no raises, you could probably throw out a call, but you dont raise with 57, and you don't call raises. Like I said, you will lose more money than you make. Now sometimes, a certain person might get lucky with the same hand each few times they got it, so that hand seems like it will always hit, but in fact hands like 57 really aren't that good at all. You say they are easy to lay down, and in fact they are, but you didn't even abide by that saying. When I play suited connectors and I hit low pair, like you said you did in your home game, I always fold if there is a bet. You called there with two over cards. That is a GREAT way to lose your money quickly, calling with bottom pair. Now you might think these hands work for you, and if they do, feel free to continue to test them out, but for most players in most situations, suited connectors are just a drawing hand where you usually don't hit. With low suited connectors, you have to hit that straight or flush, because a low pair will almost never win a hand.

__________________
cky12 - PokerStars
cky12 - FullTilt

My Poker Journal

"By the way, i wouldn't recommend you playing this hand if you're a beginner or have very little chips/money to play with."

These are not hands you should play everytime you get them or very often for that matter. It's just nice to play them every once in a while, when i have chips i can spare. Not only will they lose you money if you play them all the time, they'll probably make you broke!!! If you do play your top hands all the time and never switch up your play some it makes it easy to determine what kind of cards you have when you do raise or come into a pot that's already been raised. With these hands it allows people to see that you're not a "Rock" and you will play other hands, which makes it impossible to determine what kinda cards you have. That will get you some "loose calls" occasionally from people that think you're bluffing or that you just don't have anything when you really do have a good hand.

I do not recommend calling with bottom pair! It will lose you money quick, but in that situation i had plenty of chips and put my opponent on no pair! So, yes i got "lucky" and will continue to be "lucky" when i hit my small suited connectors. Even if i only play them 1 out of every 500 hands when I do hit them everyone will consider me "lucky".

TMPickle I agree totally with your post well done although My favorite suited connector is 89 however I usually prefer to limp or only call a small raise I hardly ever raise preflop with these hands.

I am in agreement with Reticman, limping or calling a small raise from the blinds with suited connectors is a play I like to make. Will you win enough hands to make up for playing that hand when you don't hit something to give you a profitable outcome. Brunson is obviously well known for using these types of hands and reading the small suited connectors section in his book really helps as far as learning the best methods for playing them.

The most important thing is realizing that you must hit 2-pair or better to really continue with this hand if you are to call a large bet (unless you have a solid read on a player you enter pots with frequently).

__________________