Playing Suited Connectors
written by BeatTheFish.com
Small suited connectors (hands like 4-5
suited and 7-8 suited) can be a goldmine if you hit the right flop,
especially playing no-limit. As Doyle Brunson says, they're his
favorite type of hand to play in no-limit hold 'em. That's for good
reason. They also can serve the same purpose in limit hold 'em, but
you usually won't be getting good enough odds to play them as often.
Why can baby suited connectors be so powerful? Simple. You're
inherently drawing to both a straight and a flush (and a straight
flush once in a long while). Plus, your hand usually stays pretty
hidden, especially if you've established the right table image.
I recommend playing these types of hands from middle or late
position when lots of people are in the pot. You need good pot odds
to play this type of hand, and you are getting great odds with 5 or
6 callers. In no-limit, you're also getting great implied odds on
suited connectors. Implied odds are what you can expect to make from
your opponents when you hit your hand. When your suited connectors
hit, you can expect to make a lot from your opponents, especially
when they have a large pocket pair. You should also rarely play
these hands for more than the minimum bet. If there are going to be
any raises, you need to be the one making the raise. You shouldn't
raise these hands often, but it can be a good occasional play to mix
up your game and throw off your opponents.
Consider the following hand that I encountered a few nights ago
playing no-limit online. I called the big blind with 4-5 suited from
last position. Including the small blind, there are 5 of us in the
pot. The flop comes out with 5-4-10 of all different suits, giving
me two pair. The big blind bets out about 3/4 the size of the pot
and everyone folds to me. I make it 3x the pot to go. The big blind
instantly goes all-in. At this point, I'm worrying that I'm beaten
with a set but I had him covered and called his bet. I like the
sites that let you see the holecards in ring games when everyone is
all-in. This was one of those sites. He turns over pocket AA. I
dodge another Ace and take his money. Almost instantly he leaves the
table.
This is as much a testament to never slowplaying Aces as it is to
playing baby suited connectors. You'll run into people who like to
slowplay big hands, for whatever reason, and let you in to see a
cheap flop. If I don't hit both the 4 and the 5, a straight, or a
flush draw I'm out. At what investment? Just the big blind. It's
worth it to see a cheap flop every time if they're going to play Aces
like that.
Another very important aspect to playing suited connectors is
having the strength to fold them. If you're going to play them, you
have to be able to
release them when they don't hit, which is going to be most of the
time. If you sort of hit the flop and pair one of your small cards,
let it go if someone bets at you! On this site, I recommend a "flop
it or fold it" style of play. Sometimes you'll draw and hit, but
most of the time it's just going to be a slow leak in your game.
Have the discipline to muck them.
So that's how and why you play suited connectors in a nutshell. Play
'em for cheap, flop 'em big, and play 'em hard. Don't forget that
these types of hands are very vulnerable unless you hit a real
monster like a full house or better, so when you do hit when them
play 'em fast.
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