Playing speculative hands
In my personal opinion, there is no more satisfying moment in poker than when I am able to see a flop cheaply with a speculative hand that flops a monster. It’s even better when your opponent holds a big hand himself and you are able to stack him.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, let me define what a speculative hand is. It’s a hand like a small pair, suited connectors(8s9s), suited one gappers(4h6h) and other such hands.
Most of the time, you are going to miss the flop with these hands. This is why you want to see flops cheaply with them. You can then easily fold your hand if you don’t hit the flop hard.
I played a hand recently which illustrates this point clearly. I was playing full ring 50NL Rush Poker on Full Tilt Poker when I was dealt the 4d5d in the big blind. The player UTG min-raised and was called by UTG+1 and another player in late position. I decided to call the min-raise with my speculative hand. I was hoping the UTG raiser had a big pocket pair and that if I hit the flop hard, I could stack him.
Well, the flop came A23 rainbow and I flopped the nuts. The player UTG leads out and is smooth called by UTG+1. The middle position player folds and I decide to raise. UTG then 3-bets small and is 4-bet by UTG+1. All three of us end up getting all in and I stack A2 & A3.
Quite a few times over the years I have been able to flop a big hand by seeing a flop cheaply with a speculative hand. When you do and your opponent also has a big hand, many times they will never see it coming and stack off with a big pair. As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t hit the flop hard, just fold. Don’t get stubborn if you flop a weak one pair hand or a weak draw and decide that you have to go broke with it. This is a mistake that many players make.
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