Poker Reasons for playing those 2 cards you are dealt

No, not why do you play poker, but should you play the cards you are dealt.

There are many different variations of poker, different games, tourneys, levels of play, serious players versus donkeys, position, bubble play, heads up, chip stacks, blinds, antes and they all have one thing in common; random cards.


I do not usually offer up much strategy advice in here because well, you are the enemy, but heck why not here goes. For the purpose of this exercise I am playing Texas Hold 'em.


First of all, any 2 cards can win a hand, pre-flop, should you call every hand? Depends what the blinds are and what part of the tourney, call small, see the flop if possible. The problem with this is many players are not disciplined enough to lay down when they don't catch or get sucked into a losing hand.

I prefer to play a certain way most of the time when I am being serious, sometimes I just don't care, but when I am serious, I am tough to beat in the long haul, I generally have patience to wait for the right cards.

Getting dealt great cards is a reason to play a hand, but not a guarantee, so raise it maybe, call if need be, again this depends on many reasons and situations, but all in just because you got a decent pair or even a big pair, AK, suited connectors, whatever, doesn't mean you are going to win, just that they are worth the flop.

Again, even if you catch the flop it depends on the flavor, bitter or sweet? Enough to call, but enough to lose, If you caught a set, but there is a lot of color or straight draw, hard to fold, but I have in certain situations done just that, folded a set, on a wet board, prefer to call small and see if I catch the FH on the turn. It depends on so much, but most players see a set and get greedy.

To me it is important to let the cards play out a certain way before I commit to a pot, but getting baited by certain players with a history and a pattern is one of the downsides to always playing with the same players, sometimes it is hard to resist the urge to take them out, even if it means playing cards I normally wouldn't play.

It depends on my mood how I handle that situation, good mood serious player, bad mood don't gaff.

Source.