BLIND QUESTION -- strongest hand you will fold

[Nietzsche]

[ QUOTE ]
if u can bank the tank postflop it is

[/ QUOTE ]UTG is in the maneuvering position. Whether or not he has a hand he can present one and be credible.

[punter11235]

I am a complete n00b but it seems to me that playing suited connectors is good idea.
How do you determine if the hand is worth playing ? Do you have any any simulations/data or its just experience/intuition ?

[StellarWind]

[ QUOTE ]
I am a complete n00b but it seems to me that playing suited connectors is good idea.
How do you determine if the hand is worth playing ? Do you have any any simulations/data or its just experience/intuition ?

[/ QUOTE ]
I suggest you play with PokerStove for a while. Make up some typical ranges for PFR and pit them against various hands such as A9o and 76s. The results may cause you to develop some feel for these situations.

The most important thing in heads up situations involving fairly wide hand ranges is not suitedness, connectedness, potentially dominated kickers, or any of that stuff.

It's card size. 76s is a small card and another small card. That's a very bad thing when going up against someone who has two big cards that might be a pair:

1. Your hot-and-cold equity is sad. His cards both outrank your cards. Throw in even a modest chance that he has an overpair to both your cards and you are in really bad shape.

2. Your implied odds suck (part 1): It's cool to make a pat hand with your suited connectors and crack his aces. But for every time you manage to make your flush or straight, there will be a whole lot of times where you pay to showdown a pair of sixes and lose to a big split pair or an overpair. The big implied odds driver in headsup play is both players making one-pair hands. This happens constantly and it's very hard for the loser to avoid paying for a showdown. You are going to lose every time this happens and it's going to cost you plenty.

3. Your implied odds suck (part 2): Making a pat hand doesn't win a big pot heads up. How many bets do you expect him to pay you for your flush? All he's probably got is one pair or an unimproved ace. You'll put one raise in and he'll go directly to turtle mode. The pot will be scarcely bigger than the one you are about to lose with 76 v AQ on a Q9963 board.

[helpmeout]

yep suited connectors are overrated

they are good against overly tight players who will fold easily to your semibluff raises but against most you just spew chips because you'll rarely flop the best hand and that dude with Ace high isnt folding when you raise your draw

[stripsqueez]

even assuming a tight UTG raiser there arent too many hands where your not getting pot odds to call in the BB

the issue in this spot is not what you should do pre flop although i would generally agree with the ranges suggested - which is to say unless you have a clear view about whats happening post flop you cant make a good decision pre flop

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[MATT111]

[ QUOTE ]
Against a typical 25/17 I would play 22, AJo/ATs, KQs/KQo, QJs/QJo, and JTs.

I don't think playing low suited connectors is a good idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

T9s should typically fair better against an UTG raiser than JTs, no?

[marching_on_together]

[ QUOTE ]
Against a typical 25/17 I would play 22, AJo/ATs, KQs/KQo, QJs/QJo, and JTs.

I don't think playing low suited connectors is a good idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

A10o plays better than QJo, for me QJo is a muck infact i'd rather have 109s,98s than QJo

[Scipio]

I play A9o+, A2s+, KJo+, K8s+, QJo+, Q9s+,J9s+,35s+,34s+,22+

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Against a typical 25/17 I would play 22, AJo/ATs, KQs/KQo, QJs/QJo, and JTs.

I don't think playing low suited connectors is a good idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

T9s should typically fair better against an UTG raiser than JTs, no?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don´t think so.
Your equity is better with JTs, a pair of Jacks can be good against a UTG raiser and if you make your straigh villian often has a good top pair ( Example AKQ23 Board).
So i prefer JTs (but i think it´s close).

[kiddo]

Why are u playing JTs but not 87s?

U will win most hands HU hitting a pair and with JT u are often dominated, with 87 not.

Also, I think it can go wrong - like u talk about in ur other post - to trust pokerstove to much. A blindwar got very little to do with going allin preflop.

If a 25/17 raise UTG and I defend in BB with 87s. And if I put pressure on other guy whenever I like the flop (lets say 35% + some semibluffs + some pure bluffs (lets say 45% overall) I am pretty sure I will lose less then the 0.5BB i already had to post.

The thing with mid-connectors is that I often can identify which flops are good for me, something that is much harder with a hand like QJo. So even if QJo wins more if we go allin preflop we can win put in more - postflop - when we are ahead with 87 and less when we are behind.

[rory]

44, AT, KJ