I am always looking for a pocket pair or a AX in these low m desperate spots.

Last night I was in this spot, kind of on tilt after some fish called my 3/4 pot bet chasing a flush and hit it, and I looked down at 9 10 suited. Normally I am mucking this in this spot because it's a limping hand, but i decided to shove my chips in and figured I will probably steal the pot, or at worst case maybe I get lucky and double up. .........not my normal style of play, but I was tilting a bit.

Anyway, I lose the hand to AK when neither hand pairs.

It got me to thinking about suited connectors in this spot.....I normally muck them, but is there something to be said for using these hands in these situations?

Short answer is "yes." In fact, there is something to be said about pushing with a lot of two-card combinations, depending on the circumstances.

I am not going to do this discussion justice, and I strongly recommend that you read Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold'em Vol. II." He gives some very detailed recommendations about how to play as your M drifts down below 10 and towards 5. Among other things, he discusses a concept of "first-in vigorish." The concept is that the first player to enter a pot with a big bet deters others from joining him and can result in stealing the blinds and antes. Recognizing this phenomenon is something that a player can take advantage of in the right circumstances.

Very generally, you need enough chips that people will think twice about calling you; somewhat similarly, you need people acting behind you whose chip stacks cannot easily absorb a loss to you; you need a relatively tight/solid table image; and you need play to be tightening because of the stage of the tournament. With these conditions, you can be selectively aggressive with a wider range of hands, and even when called, you are often no more than a 2:1 underdog because both your cards are live.

Yeah, I have been using them too, unlikely to dominated, especially 87s, 76s, and 65s

Originally Posted by mxp2004

I strongly recommend that you read Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold'em Vol. II."

MX......I am sorry but I had to laugh. I have read both of his books at least 5 times. I am always preaching DH on here. I appreciate the insight, but what I was getting at, was knowing DH's recommended strategies, how do suited connectors hold up?

At first I clicked off the computer and felt it was a total tilt push, but then I started thinking abot it and thought their must be some merits to using them in this spot......If called, I am most definately behind, but these spots are usually battles of unpaired cards, and my suited connector has additional flush and straight possibilities to offset the fact that I am most likely looking at at least one overcard against me........thats pretty much the discussion I was trying to get at.

Beav: I had a feeling you would say that. I definately would lean to only doing it if I was 1st in, or if there was one limper and my stack could still do damage to him.

I'm with Beav, these are great hands because they are at least live. If I've got an M around 10, I'm looking for something a little better, but as it drifts down, I'm pushing with suited connectors as well.

Of course, my actual hand selection depends upon my position, the chipstacks remaining to act, how the table is playing, etc. Many a times I've pushed in late position with absolute crap (23, Q4, etc) knowing the table would fold the blinds to me unless there was a monster out there. Other times I've mucked even JTs in early position when there was a a big chipstack at the table eager to look anyone up.

Originally Posted by Jason75

Other times I've mucked even JTs in early position when there was a a big chipstack at the table eager to look anyone up.

I especially take this into account when the BB is the chip leader. He's already in the pot, and doesn't need much to call you.

Agreed on late position. Unopened pot, low M, I am pushing almost anything to scoop the blinds.

I was in early position with my suited connectors.

this was something I read about in Phil Gordon's book, instead of raising with something like QJ or KT, or maybe weaker hands like Q8, K4. He likes to raise with the medium suited connectors (he actually doesn't like T9).

Say you have 9 BBs left, and raise 3bbs from the CO, the button goes all in,

if there are antes, there are now 12.5bbs in the pot, takes 6 for you to call. You have just tried to steal, but given yourself 2:1+ odds for the call.

I just ran a pokerstove sim, they really aren't that great against a range of typical hands, 77+, AT+ KQ, About 2:1 dogs , small pairs and "dominated" hands are actually a little better.