The worst poker hand

What do you think the worst poker hand is? The worst pocket hand… before you start screaming 7,2o pause for a second and give it some thought. 7,2o may be mathematically the worst starting hand indeed. It cannot really make straights or flushes unless giving up a card and even if it does hit one that way, it is likely to get the player stuck on the lower end of it. If it hits a pair, it’s almost certainly beat. Hitting a trip is one hell of a long-shot, so it’s basically quite useless. The very fact though that even a beginner can tell why this hand should be mucked, saves it from the stigma of the worst staring hand in poker. Nobody plays the 7,2o. If you do not have any money committed (you haven’t paid one of the blinds) folding it is a no-brainer. You won’t ever really lose any money with the 7,2o unless you’re the BB or the SB. In case you are, there’s only one way you’ll ever take it to the flop: if a limping fest ensues. Other than that, you’ll fold it anyway, letting go of the chips you’ve committed, and in the long-run, yes indeed you will lose some money on it this way. The extremely few times you do end up seeing a flop with it though, every once in a while you end up being hit dead on for a two pair or for some trips. These few cases will generate enough value for you to offset the losses you incur on the blinds. Chances are that in the long-run, a reasonable poker player is in the black with his 7,2o, or he’s only marginally in the red.

The worst poker hand obviously needs to be sought elsewhere.
The worst hand is a hand which gets you to shove a bunch of your chips into the middle, and it ends up stripping you of them much more often than not. The culprit could be something like a J,J promoting you to shove all-in in a tournament only to be met with your opponent’s pocket rockets, Ks or Qs. The J,J is also gut-wrenchingly vulnerable when faced with a higher card on the flop, and then with another one on the turn. The K,Q is a good candidate too. It’s not a bad starting hand, but when an A lands on the flop, your post-flop life instantly becomes unbearably difficult. The K,9 and the J,10s are other examples of such perfect worst hand candidates.

With all the above taken into account, the bottom line is obvious: the worst poker hand is different from one player to another, there is no clearly definable “worst hand”. Your worst poker hand is the one which makes your post-flop life miserable. The hand you have the most trouble folding when you suspect you’re beat, the one that makes you uncomfortable (and thus prone to commit mistakes) even when you’re pretty sure you’re ahead.

“Worst” hands do carry some common characteristics, at least for reasonably good poker players: they’re made up of two big cards, unpaired, that are one or two gappers. A K,10 or a Q,10 are excellent examples in this sense. Our guy plays them because of the implied odds they carry, he then hits a top pair and he finds he still can’t feel happy about it on account of his kicker. Most of the “worst” hands flop draws easily, and that’s when the problems surface. Players generally have difficulties playing flopped draws and this often leads to tilting.

After having read all this, I’m quite certain next time you’re asked about the worst starting hand in poker, you’ll take a moment before you reply.

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The shortest way to poker success

Everyone is looking for the shortest way to achieving success at the poker table. Of course, I needn’t even tell you that most every new player who signs up and hits an online poker table for the first time in his life, thinks (or at least secretly hopes) that he is some kind of outstanding poker genius, someone for whom the game and its intricacies will fall into place naturally. Legends and hearsay about people who make it big overnight at the online poker tables abound, but then again, one can’t really hit a poker forum where 99% of the posters are not highly successful players. How reliable is all that information though? Most probably, not very. You see, us humans have a way of creating legends about our overachievers. There are all sorts of clichés about scientists “happening” over their most significant discoveries at a moment’s notice, as if by chance. The same goes for poker players, and because poker is a game with a significant luck factor involved, it’s so much more believable. The problem is though, that the same way those scientists we like consider lucky albeit smarter than average bastards were everything but that, successful poker players don’t effortlessly spring out of anonymity either.

Most of the major scientific breakthroughs throughout the history of mankind have been the results of years and years of study, discipline, hard work and number crunching. Since the analogy I’m trying to draw here is quite obvious: the same is required for poker success.
Like it or not, there are no shortcuts to online poker success. I’m a poker player indeed, but I’m nowhere near the level some of my friends have managed to achieve at the virtual green felt. The reason I never managed to break out of the mold of the recreational player is that I firmly believe I can make money EASIER doing something else, rather than playing poker at the level it requires to reward efforts with success. I can tell you that being truly successful at poker takes time, tons and tons of energy, grit and the ability to take massive downswings in stride and to bounce back from bankruptcy time and time again.

When you look at a poker player like Daniel Negreanu, all you see is a mostly smiley face, always radiating a weird type of charisma, and beyond that as average a person as you can possibly imagine. The problem is you don’t see the real engine that keeps that system ticking: the thousands upon thousands of hours spent at the green felt, at the online and the live tables. The countless heartbreaks and above all, the ability to take a punch to the face, then ask for another one and keep going. You don’t see that, and that’s the real secret behind the scenes in the case of pretty much every “name” pro you so envy and aim to be like.

Poker is a game built on math and if you sport a superior IQ, you’re probably starting with an advantage, or are you? According to many of the experts, success and IQ are only loosely correlated in life in general and in poker in particular. What that means is that a superior IQ doesn’t guarantee you anything at the green felt. At the end of the day, what it comes down to is grit and determination. You have to be willing to turn poker into your second nature, otherwise you odds for success in today’s increasingly competitive poker world will remain close to nil.

Texas Hold’em quick lesson for beginners on the eve of the WSOP

The WSOP is yet again upon us. Poker portals and forums are abuzz with news as events seem to shift into overdrive compared to the rest of the year. You can hear, read and see poker everywhere and the game gains a lot of exposure with people who are not exactly hot-wired to the game on a regular basis. What’s great about the WSOP is that it never fails to rustle up new interest and to bring new players to the green felt. If you’re a beginner, and you get caught up in the WSOP fever, you may want to read into this little ad-hoc Holdem guide I put together. I’m not going to delude you: it’s probably too little too late anyway, but it’s still better than nothing.

Why this Texas Hold’em guide instead of another poker variant? Simple: Texas Hold’em is the game which gives rookies a fair fighting chance against experienced players in the short-run. Don’t even think about registering for a PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) event or for a mixed game one. As a beginner, you should only aim for Texas Hold’em. In all other poker variants, you’ll be swept off the table. In Holdem, you’ll have the luck factor working for you and thus you’ll be able to keep up with the big boys in the short-term. Over the long-run you’ll still probably be gutted, but you do need some sort of a taste of success to get you going, and believe me, you’re not going to get that at the PLO or Stud tables.

I mentioned the luck factor above. Many beginners are still not 100% sure about whether or not poker is gambling. The answer to that is yes and no. There’s a definite luck element in poker, which concerns the cards that you are dealt and the ones that will land on the board as the community cards. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to influence those cards. What you can influence though is when you put your money into the middle, and that makes all the difference in the world. Poker is a game about card strength. It is also a finely tuned psychological game, an aspect which great players control extremely well. As a beginner, try to stay clear of complicated situations. Don’t abuse the bluff. Your goal should always be to keep your post-flop decisions as simple as possible. To that end, you need to shape your preflop decisions accordingly.
Preflop action is mostly about starting hand selection. As a beginner, you should place great importance on starting hand selection. Play only monsters like A,A,k,k, QQ,j,j. These are all made hands, capable of taking down the pot without any sort of improvement. In the later stages of a tournament, don’t be afraid to shove all-in on such hands, especially if you’re short-stacked. The problem with such hands is that they carry pretty flimsy odds to improve with the board, therefore it’s safe to say they’re not great implied odds hands.
Small pocket pairs, suited connectors and suited one gappers on the other hand are excellent implied odds hands, and they’re well playable in a cash game. Tournament poker is a different breed of animal though, so only play these starting hands when you’re deep stacked.
All of these starting hands will make your post-flop decisions extremely simple. When the flop falls, take a look at its texture. If you reckon your high pair holds, you can keep pumping the pot, preferably in an aggressive way to drive out drawing hands. If you’re playing one of the implied odds hands I pointed out above, you should see if the flop hits you or not. If it does, keep feeding the pot and hope for one of your opponents to tag along. If the flop misses you, you should just fold it.
Position: Texas Hold’em is a positional game, which gives a distinct advantage to players who act late. Make sure you match everything you do to your position, even your starting hand selection should be bolder when in late position.