hi all

this is my first post xD

anyway, ive been getting into poker recently and hope to get into some money live games soon at my nearby casino but i keep noticing a pattern

I get alot of crappy hands, and i mean unsuited non faced non connectors. or a lowly facecard with a low unsuited # card.

i tend to play connectors (even if they are small), doubles, and highface cards. i dont tend to play unconnected low suitors.

well my first question i supoose is, does that seem like an OK strategy?


and my 2nd question is, given the rarity of getting a "good hand", will it be normal to be folding 8/10 times?

i hear that cold bluffs dno't happen that often, so even if i bluff, ill be folding around 7/10 times. is this normal in a real poker game?

advice will be much appreciated.

thanks alot

simple answer Yes

Look at it this way.

6 max game - only six players at a table

Some one that is considered very tight will play only about 10% of all starting hands which is 88+,A9s+,KTs+,QTs+,AJo+,KQo
Some one that is considered tight will play roughly between 18 - 22% of all starting hands ( most people consider a tight strategy optimal for people starting out)
18% - 66+,A5s+,K9s+,Q9s+,J9s+,ATo+,KTo+,QTo+
22% - 66+,A3s+,K7s+,Q9s+,J9s+,T9s,A8o+,KTo+,QTo+,JTo

Understand that the above ranges will vary based on personal preference. Most people will play all pocket pairs but not K7 suited.
So you can see that at a six max table you could be folding 80 to 90 percent of your hands and still be considered to be playing a solid preflop range of hands.

I don't play full ring so the ranges and strategy for hands is little different hopefully some one else can give so input on that for you.

Since you are just getting into poker play a tight strategy and don't open your game up until you have a solid understanding what to do in a variety of situations.

Cold bluffs or a naked bluff are rare and you need to have some type of a read on your opponent and his hand range to have long term success at running this type of bluff. You will run into whats called a semi bluff much more often.

example.

You open raise in late postion with K10 of hearts and the big blind calls. The board comes Qs 9h 4h and the big blind checks. When you continuation bet this flop it is considered a semibluff. You may or may not be betting the best hand but you have lots of outs if you are up agains a pocket pair or a hand like 89s or QJ.

Folding 8 out of 10 sounds about right. It's a hard concept to get into at first, but position is a lot more important than you think. Like, JT suited for instance: If you're under the gun (directly after the blinds - first to act pre-flop), it's almost always a fold. If you're on the button with it and there's no action before you, though, you raise it every time. You're hand ranges should be really tight early on, but a lot looser closer to the button.

it's okay to fold your cards but i'd say not all the time cause you'll be predictable, meaning.. if you try to bet or raise, re raise.. they will know that you have a strong card cause you are not aggressive. sometime you have to play mind games with them. well actually most of the time.

I've started bluffing from position , sb,bb,button ... just to lossen up my table image , seems to be helping.....
definately 3bb when I do have a hand helps "liven" up the table as well , games which used to take the same 5 players 4/5 hrs
is now only taking 3hrs ...and I'm winning more in big hands ...

sb and bb isn't "from position" that's as OOP as you can get.

:-) , I wouldn't really know tbh , but wot I meant too say is that when only 2 or 3 ppl are left i.e
1.if I'm on the button and only the blinds are left in the hand I go for the bluff... or
2.if I'm in the sb and only bb is in the hand I bluff...or
3.if I'm on bb and only the sb is in the hand I bluff....or
4.if I'm on either sb or bb and button and the other is still in the hand I bluff ...

mind you I don't do it too regularly , just enough to keep everyone guessing , if I do get called and re-raised I simply
let it go ... basically its my way of "investing" if u will in loosening the guys up ....
basically the next time in a similar position when I do have a hand and raise (as if I'm bluffing in above scenerio) and get re-raised
I then re-re-raise bigger and get nice hands with much bigger money already in the pot .....
seems to work just fine imo, very little having AA (for example) and winning peanuts....

btw this is all pre-flop business