I
recently had quite a long run of poor results at
the limit holdem tables, and it took me a long time
to figure out what the problem was. Because there
are extended up and down streaks in poker, it is
often easy to just assume that you are in a down
swing instead of realizing that you have a leak
in your game. Once I determined that there was a
problem, it didn't take me long to narrow it down
to the misplay of face card hands.
The
tendency of many players is to overplay any hand with
two face cards, especially after seeing 26 straight
hands like 72, 83, 43 and J2. This is the trap I had
fallen into. I found myself playing KJs from early position
and QJ from middle position, or even occasionally calling
a raise with KQ. Though in limit Texas holdem, these
plays may not appear bad on the surface, they are incorrect.
Let's take a look at a few hands, and the problems with
them.
The
first hand we will look at is KJs from early position.
While being suited is a plus, it doesn't come into
play very often, so it is best to ignore this from
early position. Your thought process needs to be
as follows. If you knew that you would have to call
two bets instead of one and play the hand out of
position, would you limp into the pot? This is why
you can't play KJs from early position. In the great
majority of games, the pot will be raised, and if
you already have a single bet in, you will call
the second bet. In a limit game this in itself is
not always deadly, but when compounded with being
forced to play the hand out of position, it is completely
unplayable.
QJ
from middle position is also a long-term drain on
your profitability, but for slightly different reasons.
The question that needs answered is; what will you
do if you hit top pair on the flop and, is your
hand going to be good? More often than not, if you
get any action on the flop, one of your opponents
has top pair with an Ace kicker, or better. This
is not a good position to be in, because you will
be tempted to check and call through the river,
losing at least two more big bets to a better hand.
The
moral to this story is not to overvalue hands just
because they contain face cards. When you find yourself
playing hands like those above, in the wrong positions,
make a conscious effort to tighten up your game
a bit. Until next week, good luck at the tables.
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