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Dumping Your Second-Best Hand
Everyone knows that uncomfortable you get after being dealt a 16 in Blackjack. Naturally, it's the worst hand you can have and the odds are that you're going to lose your bet.
The Hold'em equivalent to a Blackjack16 is a 2-7, which is considered to be the worst possible hand. However, with a 2-7, you shouldn’t lose anything (because you'll fold pre-flop), or at worst, you’ll drop just your blind. In fact, we think you shouldn't even mind getting a 2-7 because at least you know its value. What’s far more frightening is to be dealt A-A, oddly enough, because that's a hand that carries the major possibility of costing you a lot of money. The paradox that a good hand is even more frightening than a bad one is based upon perhaps the most important concept of poker: relative hand value.
Everyone knows that to be successful at poker, you have to maximize your wins and minimize your losses. Maximizing your wins is relatively easy. Slowplaying and trapping help facilitate these wins, but in reality any fool can more or less win a decent amount when he's in possession of a good hand.
The thing that generally separates a winning poker player from a losing one though is HOW the two players lose their hands. A winning poker player knows how to dump his second-best hand while a loser will go ahead and call it down and lose at the showdown.
We believe that general psychological differences exist between a winning player and a losing player. The losing player has a greater need to satisfy his curiosity. In other words, he’s ‘just got to know’ what the other guy had. Or, even more specifically, he has a desire to be a policeman and make sure his opponent isn't bluffing and to make sure he didn't lose what he could have won. This naturally causes a losing player to call when he shouldn't. A winning poker player has overcome such a desire and forces himself to simply play well and focus on his OWN game.
Now that we've brought to your attention the need for identifying your second-best hand, the question is: “how do you play it?” The answer to this depends on whether we’re talking about limit or no-limit poker.
Limit poker
In limit, calling with the second-best hand won't kill you right away. You'll only detect your negative bank balance in the long run because you'll sometimes still win in the short-term.
Ordinarily, the best method of limiting your second-best hand losses is focusing on your pre-flop play. Don't go in with hands that don't have a legitimate kicker (i.e., dump K-8 or A-7) because those are often dominated hands (a ‘dominated hand’ generally refers to the situation when you and your opponent have similar hands, but one will almost always beat the other). Examples of dominated hands would be A-A vs. A-Q, or A-K vs. A-9. The hand that's dominated has three outs or less (A-Q must catch two queens without an ace hitting, or a straight, to win). So, correct and smart pre-flop play can limit second-best hands because you call less with dominated hands, because of the kicker.
Flop play is a bit different. Suppose the board is A-K-9 and you have K-Q. You definitely have second-best hand potential-but how can you tell? Well, frequently the best way is to bet or raise at flop and see what happens. If you encounter a lot of resistance, you're probably finished. If there's a large multi-way pot, folding is probably the best idea - someone is bound to have the ace.
No-limit poker
At no-limit poker, it's a totally different story. In limit, you won't lose too much for one second-best hand, but with no-limit, you can easily lose your entire stack! That's why, at no limit, it's best to play the nut-like hands more often. Put differently, pocket pairs go up in value because of their ability to hit a set. Connecting cards increase in importance as well because of their potential to hit straights. Ace-suited goes up in value too because of the nut flush, but people are generally very aware of the flush potential and will shut you out at the flop when you hit a flush draw.
Since these hands go up in value, what goes down? (“Everything that goes up, must come down” right?) A-Q, A-J, K-Q, K-J, etc. go down. These hands are the ones that can get crushed at no-limit poker. These hands will win small pots with a top pair, but will lose large ones when someone else nails a set or a straight.
The essential thing to no-limit poker is to not necessarily dump these second-best hands pre-flop - sniff out what other people have on the flop. Don't simply call bets with the second-best hand; you have to raise to find out where you are. When someone bets at you, they're menacing your whole stack (if the bet is a significant one). You’ve got to come back at them by going after theirs! If the board is K-10-7 and you've got K-Q, you could be in a lot of hot water. Someone betting at you could have 10-J or 10-10. It's important to determine their relative strength by raising them at the flop.
Many people might say, "Well . . . couldn't they just bluff re-raise me?" Of course, that’s a possibility, but that will cost them a lot of money when you finally do get the nut hand. Simply call the re-raise and then take them for the rest of their stack on the turn or river.
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