Power Hold'em Strategy by Negreanu Daniel

Author:Negreanu, Daniel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cardoza Publishing
Published: 2012-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

PLAYING JUNK HANDS

When you’re playing junk, you could bluff a guy off the pot without hitting anything if the right cards come. If I limp under the gun and call a raise, my opponent is going to wonder what I have. If the right flop comes, I can outplay him. A lot of top players do things that don’t seem to make sense, but they actually do make sense. There is logic behind the play, though it might not immediately be apparent.

Playing junk hands can work out great because the raiser really doesn’t know what you have. Do you have aces, or do you have nothing? That’s why mixing it up is such a powerful strategy. Would you really call or reraise with a crappy hand, a 5-3, 8-4, or anything? Probably not. That’s why your opponent would discount the hand you actually have. But you only want to make these moves when you know your opponent and how you’re going to proceed. Otherwise you’d be wasting chips, getting yourself into trouble.

Some top professionals only play the nuts, and are rarely going to play junk hands. And there are others—pros like Daniel, Grinder, Tuan Le, and myself—who do things that don’t make sense to the common poker player. You’ve got to take it beyond what’s out there sometimes. Everyone’s getting good—they’re reading books, playing online, learning, and figuring out how to play poker—so you really have to do something different. Every now and then, not all the time, make random calculated moves just to trick opponents, simply to throw them off. Do something that’s really unconventional.

For example, if I’ve been raising hand after hand and all of a sudden I limp under the gun, people tend to get confused and think that I must have aces or some other big hand. You can really throw opponents for a loop with a play like that.

If you make a crazy move and do something unpredictable, be sure to have a plan for how you are going to attack, what you are going to do. Are you going to bluff with a 5-2? Are you ready to make a move on the flop? If your opponent has a strong hand, will he get rid of it for a big enough bet? If he has a weak hand, how do you play? You need to have a good read on the table; that’s the basis of your plan going into the hand. It all comes back to being aware of how your opponents play.

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