As a conservative player, how often shd you play a random (marginal or below) hand?

I'm trying out poker playing very consistently these past month or so. Noticing huge progress since the beginning.
So I notice I do much better playing conservative than aggressive or super agro. But I generally get the most winnings when I play a bad pre flop hand and flop a monster, because nobody suspects a conservative player to hit a straight with an 8 6, or a full house with a 10 2.

Anybody who is conservative willing to give some advice on this, when should i play one of these hands? How often? And if raised say (3-5x BB) should I ever call in case those low cards show up. Also what table position(s) tend to work best with these kind of hands?

Thanks for all who reply!

I'm not the most conservative, so other guys might be able to give better insight. But I would add hands like and be raising with them. That way you'll have some deceptive value if you spike a flop, but you can still rep boards like with your strong range.

I wouldn't flat with them because that play is pretty transparent to most villains and they'll likely include hands just like you hold into your range.

Great question, as I have noticed that I tend to only play really good hands, and this will get me pretty far in the tourny, but it kills me toward the end. The good players notice my habits and seem to always fold when I do get good hands. The times I loosen up I dont really fair well. Playing A rag gets me every dang time.

A major factor in how you play non-premium hands are the playing styles of the 2-3 players to your immediate left. If those players tend to defend their blinds very often or make loose calls then I wouldn't raise as wide from the SB, button, or hijack, if they are nitty then by all means raise with hands that have decent potential post-flop such as 65s, J9, etc. Blind and stack sizes are also extremely important, if you have 15BB and somebody in the blinds has 100BB+, you shouldn't be raising without a strong hand because you're going to get called the majority of the time.

How you've played at the table so far should also be taken into account, for example if you've folded the button several times in a row because of being dealt trash hands you have a good chance of raising and taking the blinds with ATC the next couple of times around because people will think you are actually playing good hands (if they are actually paying attention, which is often questionable in the micros).

In general, if you're going to play non-premium hands you want to always be the first one to raise into an unopened pot (no earlier limpers or raisers). This is obvious but hugely important: if you are the original raiser, you have two ways of winning the pot, but if you call someone else's raise, you have to win at showdown unless you can get them to fold before then.

For newer players I would recommend not playing non-premiums from early or middle positions until you gain more post-flop experience. You're not going to flop the nuts every time, what usually happens is that you flop something like bottom pair or a draw and it takes practice to minimize the risk of losing all your chips in these situations, especially playing out of position.

I say if you want to play marginal hands, try playing them in position. Don't ever try playing them out of position, that's just being crazy and loose.
Also, try not to commit all your chips with 10 2 when you hit a 10 on the flop. Be careful with those hands if you want to play them.
I wouldn't advise to play them.

As PGoat has noted, poker isn't just about how you play. Against beginner- and entry-level opponents, you can be at least marginally profitable playing tight and focusing primarily on yourself because they will make enough poor plays for you to be +EV. But you won't get far that way.

So, in terms of playing more hands, the best idea probably isn't just to focus on yourself by looking for which hands to start playing, but rather to think about situations. As a fairly simple example, 76s is an easy fold in EP vs an active table, but a pretty easy opening if it's folded to you on the button vs tight players in the blinds.

People have alluded to it, but a concern for opening up your hand range is what limits you're playing at. Other things that matter include position, stack size, and opponents' tendencies.

Assuming you are taking these factors into consideration, it is still very rare you will open with a raise holding T2, suited or not. It is not a strong hand. Just because you are opening your hand range does not mean you should toss in just any two random cards to try and confuse your opponents. You are only going to confuse them if they see the hand, and then you have to win to make it worthwhile.

If you think adding those hands in is a good idea, think about this. You will win big pots when people don't give you credit for flopping big because you play tight. But you are going to lose with those hands more often than not, so you may be overall losing with that hand, even with that one big win. And if you play bad hands too often, then they stop seeing you as a conservative player in the first place.

It depends on the table and the players, in tournaments it also depends on the level. More people just go all in in tourneys so if you are at an aggressive table you may want to choose your hands wisely.