Re: Are ANY two cards mathematically playable with huge pot odds?
[ QUOTE ]
I recently had a situation where I called a raise with A6s preflop, early in a micro NLHE MTT. Sounds pretty bad, except that I only had to call $20 into a $480 pot.
It turned out rather well, as the flop was A66. But it got me thinking--with those odds, are there ANY two cards that aren't playable?
If no, does the following logic apply?
1. You should stay in a big pot with weaker odds than those that would keep you in a small pot.
2. With pot odds that are big enough, it is mathematically correct to call whether the pot is small or large.
3. Therefore, if you are last to act and everyone else at your table shoves on the first hand of an MTT, you should shove also. You have good pot odds and the pot is large.
[/ QUOTE ]
1)First , it's important that you specify the number of opponents you're up against . Second , you should have an idea of how much they may possibly lose if you were to win ;in other words , the number of chips you could potentially win is very important .
For instance , I don't think you should play 7-2 offsuit from the sb with 9 limpers . Even though you're getting wonderful odds , this is a bad bet for you . You can only be content with two pair and even those flops are vulnerable to getting outdrawn .
2) The more opponents you have in the pot , the better your pot odds need to be to call with a weak hand . If you're only up against one other opponent , then you don't need 18:1 pot odds . Something like 3:1 may suffice for a large subset of unpaired hole cards .
3) If n opponents at your table shove on the first hand , then you must figure that they are shoving with random hands . You should call if your hand will win more than 1/n . At a 10 handed table , this includes hands like q-9, j-9 ,k-9,a-8, 22+
|