I've only been playing poker for a couple years now and one of the big dilemmas for me is that it is still hard for me to win or get up in chips while being card dead.
Does anyone care to give some feedback on what helps them while being card dead?
What's worse? Running card dead or being dealt lots of Big Slicks and whiffing every time, picking up big pairs like aces, kings, and queens and getting them cracked?
It can be frustrating to pick up trash hand after trash hand. We didn't play to fold as that's no fun. It just has to be done if you expect to win.
Secondly, the only one sitting there who knows you're card dead is you. Your opponents don't know that. Take advantage of your "nitty" image and steal some blinds. After doing nothing but fold for a half dozen orbits, open from the #1 hole with ATC. You'll get respect and take down the blinds, or get a caller and drop him with a c-bet. If you encounter too much resistance, then it goes no farther unless you really hit the flop. Fish pursue hopeless bluffs, otters don't.
Finally, never forget that this, too, shall pass. Sometimes, it takes loads of patience, but you'll need chips when you start picking up
hands, and you won't have them if you blew them off out of pure frustration.
You won't win every day, every session. This is Poker and some days you're the fly and some days you're the windscreen. Chips saved spend the same as chips won, and it's always best to walk away with a little something than nothing.