Poker is one of the few games in the casino that has elements of skill intermingled with a high amount of chance. The cards are dealt out as luck would have it and can never be computed or influenced. Thus the strategy you use, the decisions you make with the cards you are dealt would decide how the game pans out for you. So be sure to properly plan out your moves in order to build up those cards that you have acquired.

Sometimes, there would seemingly be some sort of retributive divine intervention and you would be dealt some of the weak poker hands possibly known to man! Floating through a game with a strong hand is great but the ultimate test of a poker player is how they’ll fare holding the crummiest cards in the deck. You will have to rely on your intelligence, look as impassive as a poker player and apply all your strategic thinking. Learn how to win a poker game even when your cards are absolutely terrible. In a game of poker, strong hands are a test of your knowledge but weak hands are a test of your perseverance and resilience.

Are you down on your luck: Find out when to stop and where to continue!!!

Poker has always been defined by its excitement, large raises, and big pots.. When reflecting on a particular poker game, almost no player spends enough time to understand that the single most important part of the game is not just learning when you ought to go for a bet or even a raise, but also learning when to fold.

There are several things that need to be weighed when determining when to fold your hands. Once you get confident in applying what you are going to learn today it will make you a better and way more profitable poker player. Well, strap on as we discuss some of the advancing techniques to determine how to proceed with the subsequent bad poker hand. From selecting your cards to knowing how likely you are to win with a particular bet.

Also read: Poker Hands In Texas Hold’em

Picking your first cards or how to form a good foundation

Of all the factors that define poker as a game, hand selection when playing the game is considered to be the most crucial one. Choosing a starting hand involves playing strong starting hands and folding those that are weak. Deciding on the choice of hands is a very rational decision and easily understood. The best line of action is to be conservative and fold all your garbage hands as a newbie until you are more comfortable playing them and only playing the suited and high card garbage hands when you (the newbie) gets a good price to do so.

Once you get better you can start 3 bets folding your suited gappers and a lot of other strategies, which are out of the scope of this article. But limping every weak hand is a massive leak that has made many an Indian pro poker player’s career and bought them a flat or two. Risk taking is not encouraged especially where the choice of risks constitute probable sources of future increased rates as described in poker.

Another subtle point to note when selecting your poker hands is that in poker, basically, there is nothing to stop any given hand from winning. It is a game played with the basis of relative judgment. Although all of the cards are equally shuffled, some cards you are going to get are better than others in terms of winning. As a result, there are other considerations or conditions that affect the calculation of odds that you’ll have to include.

When forming a good foundation by picking your first poker cards, it’s essential to know which hands to discard. Here are some hands you should typically avoid:

  1. Low Offsuit Cards: Avoid playing low, unsuited cards (like 7-2 offsuit or 8-3 offsuit). These hands have low potential to improve and are less likely to win.
  2. Low Pairs: Discard small pairs (like 2-2 to 6-6) unless you’re in a later position and can see how the action unfolds. They are often not strong enough to play aggressively.
  3. Weak Suited Connectors: Hands like 5-6 suited or 4-5 suited are generally not worth playing unless you’re in a late position. They require specific conditions to be profitable.
  4. Unconnected Cards: Avoid playing non-consecutive cards that are also not suited (like 9-5 or 10-3). These hands lack synergy and are less likely to make strong combinations.
  5. Middle Pairs: Discard pairs like 7-7 or 8-8 unless you’re in a favorable position, as they can easily be outmatched by higher pairs.

Also read: Poker Hand Rankings

Playing From Different Positions

After the hand selection, the position of the players at the table is the next essential factor. The seats determine which hands you should play in the game; What are different positions in the table? We have early stage positions, middle stage positions, and late stage positions in the holistic organizational career cycle.

Playing a weak range in early position is truly difficult at the table. This is not a forced decision, players are free to fold off the weak parts of their range, they choose not to. It’s not like someone 3betting you or jamming on you. You are not guaranteed to lose in the long run if you play conservatively with a tight range and play your strong hands for value. You are guaranteed to lose if you limp from an early position with a wide range though. It is advisable then to fold a weak hand rather than attempting to bluff in this case.

Early position disadvantages you because relative to others, your knowledge of what the other hands look like is scarce. Nevertheless, in this position, you have the option to confidently play the hands listed below:

  1. Big cards like ace, and kings, and queens.
  2. Another type includes poker hands with relatively lower value than three pairs and higher value than 9/10 pairs, For instance, jacks and tens are deemed okay.
  3. Yes, if you don’t have pairs but have high suited cards like Ace-King suited, Ace-Queen suited, Ace-Jack suited, or King-Queen suited, you can eventually make a flush. In this case, you should continue playing aggressively to maximize your chances.

Understanding when to fold before showdown

When it comes to weak hands, fold equity will be our last consideration in our decision-making process. This is because knowing when to call or raise based on the chance of the opponent folding, known as fold equity, can help you to predict the winning probability of the weak hand.

You have already eliminated one of the two possibilities;

1. Having the best hand and winning at a showdown.
2. Bluffing someone with a better hand and making them fold before showdown. In this situation, one or several players might think that, by bluffing and holding a weak hand, you will be enough to win the pot. Here there are two problems that we must consider.

Fold equity is crucial because there are so many factors to consider when deciding whether to bluff, call or raise a bet. Perhaps the only certainty is that the other player may want to tell it to the cards and fold. You can also crunch the numbers and see that if the blinds are growing at this pace, you won’t be able to safeguard your fold equity in the future either.

Here are some things to bear in mind when learning the timing and strategies of folding weak poker hands.

Ensure they are applied practically, and that any of them you apply has been well researched. Still, as mentioned with that, it is impossible to quantify the weakness of your hand. Therefore, go ahead and play online poker. As time progresses you will have a natural instinct of when to keep a winning hand.

The Weak Hand Tells

  1. When breathing becomes shallow the body has no movement.
  2. Any manner of broken speaking, such as, garbled, shrill, slurred, slow, or abnormal.
  3. Trying to scare you
  4. Intentionally analyzing pocket cards after the flop.
  5. Sticking out of or moving their tongues.
  6. Of course, heavy breathing with their mouths in and out
  7. Muffles their mouth
  8. There is a rapid movement of eyelids.

However do note that seeing and exploiting tells takes years of experience. It will really backfire for newbies who neither know how to spot tells nor know how to validify their credibility or apply them.

Summary

Therefore, to win with bad cards takes all of the skills and ability, time, brain, strategy, and a stoic poker face does not indicate defeat. As long as you can display confidence and manage your nerves you have a chance at winning even if holding weak poker hands.

Strategy