Sports Articles Johnson

Taking out the trash hands

If you are a solid player, you probably have some good standards on what cards you should and shouldn’t be playing. You probably exclude most if not all trash hands from your playbook. What if I told you that there are some instances when playing trash hands can be a profitable endeavor?

Anybody can play the nuts. Then its all a matter of how do you maximize the profit. But how do you win a pot when you have absolutely nothing? Now that my friends, is a true skill. A garbage hand is when you miss the flop completely. You don’t have a pair, any flush or straight draw, nor any overcards that can improve your hand. These situations can only get you some chips when you are isolated against only 1 or 2 players and you can possibly bluff to win the hand.

Lets look at some situations in which playing trash hands might be profitable. When you are the preflop raiser against one or two opponents, you should make a continuation bet, hoping to steal the pot regardless of whether you hit or not. Another god time to steal some chips with trash is when you are in the blinds and a rag-tag flop hits. Say you are in the Big Blind against 2 opponents and the flop is 2-4-6 rainbow. If this flop didn’t hit your opponents, a bet just might steal it.

Another example is with a J-6-4 flop and you are in early position with A-9. You might lead out into one or two opponents, representing a jack, hoping that they will fold. These types of situations are nice opportunities to pick up some free chips.

I’m not saying you should be reckless though. If there are big cards, obvious straight or flush draws out on the board, don’t go crazy trying to steal unless you have position and are being checked to. In this case, bluffing may be successful, since your opponents have shown weakness and they might suspect that you were the one helped by the flop.

There are many different scenarios when bluffs might work, but be careful in playing these trash hands. Remember, bluffing is less profitable when you don have many outs to improve your hand should you be called. Also, bluffs against three or more opponents are rarely profitable with these types of hands.

Try this out in your next game and let’s see how successful your steals are with trash.

Until next time, may the chips fall your way.


by Johnson