card dead

How do you play whan you are card dead? Sometimes I do very well early in tournaments and then go card dead, literally, 7-2, 8-3 etc, for an hour or more. What's is the play here?

Patience and you need to find spots so you can steal the blinds

Play your opponent, not the cards. Also, as pck said.. look for position steals But yes, we understand the frustration of a cold deck.

One trick is to randomly re-raise preflop - regardless of your cards. If you've been card dead, you haven't been playing many hands. Hopefully other players will notice that, so your re-raise will be seen as real strength.

It's important to find a balance between being a bit LAG and spewing.

I look for spots where I can bully someone into giving me their blinds. I also open up my range to include really low suited connectors too if I need. I don't generally play random cards though because if called I want to have a chance to win.

By playing a bit looser you can still win a lot of chips if you do manage to pick up a big hand. If it's at the stage where the blinds matter to you. You don't want to give any away by playing hands that cannot win if your called.

I agree, getting a cold deck is very frustrating. The key to success of stealing blinds, is to develop a tight table image.

Rare agression preflop is good decision, and little chances to out. But only with big stack - 25 bb min stack for such a strategy. Or all-in )))

I fold.

WhereDidMyEVGo said:

I fold.

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I laughed way too hard at this.

Everyone already mentioned what to do while card dead.

Hopefully you get a hand worth playing before your stack becomes too small to be a threat.

Yea it truly sucks when you're card dead but for me, it's hard to play bad hands unless you really have to gamble basically because of your chip stack. When it comes to that time you are going to be forced to steal some pots.
The truth is though that you should have been stealing pots (in tournaments) since the tournament started. It's different for cash games but I wish you luck!

Speaking of card dead... I went card dead in a cash game today and I finally get AA.

I do a standard raise... someone calls with AK and the flop goes KKx. ~FML~

I didn't lose much because I checked the flop in position. I bet half pot on the turn and another half pot on the river and then the guy min check/raised me. I cry call and see the AK.

Yes, I also sometimes it happens when not good card and play against opponents with a bad cards, but nothing to do, not because good cards. But usually I would recommend: patience and be careful!

All players it happens. Unfortunately we have to accept. Otherwise, we simply have no choice. Get used to it.

I have tried patience and all that does, usually, is deplete my stack till I am forced to go all in with rags. Stealing the blinds works everytime but once LOL. Just can't seem to get over the hump and make some final tables!

amxvulcan said:

How do you play whan you are card dead? Sometimes I do very well early in tournaments and then go card dead, literally, 7-2, 8-3 etc, for an hour or more. What's is the play here?

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First thing I ever read about poker before I started playing is that patience is the key. I've learned over the years why that's true (the hard way of course lol). Being carddead can be horrible though and imo playing good poker means that one should be taking advantage of situations. The easiest example is if you're in LP and a couple rounds have gone by and you haven't played any hands feel free to widen your steal range (mainly if villians to your left will fold often enough or you end up isolating one of them and can beat him postflop). To be honest I've even opened up lighter than I normally would in early positions as well. I generally develop a tight image anyways so if I haven't played much in a couple rounds I might mix it up a bit. Just think about the overall situation at the time and adapt. It's all part of the game.

comfort zone

It's hard sometimes to play differently then what I am used to. When you are looking at garbage, with not much chance of developing into a reasonable hand, it is hard to lead out and try to steal. I bluff sometimes when it seems like a good play. Usually with a hand that is not made yet but has some outs that could take down the pot.

Hey this is why I am not a fan of turbos, sometimes you just get blinded just because you don't get them good cards. I guess sometimes you just have to take a risk and pretend to have something :argh:

Sometime this dead cards will put you into trouble like if your opponents have three of a kind... maybe if i play this i will be very carefull.. and not to put much investment of this kind of cards..

idk whats wrong or whats right, but surely wait is not a option, u gotta find something out. Play some hands in position, shove some "wilde" ranges in late position when in gap. Mostly there is not showdown, so bluff some passive players and get going with some chips into your stack.

I'll also wait patiently and try steal blinds in the right spots ( e.g when you are the dealer and everyone have folded before you )

though if this is a high speed play tournament you should take action when you got a good chance, you cant fold for one hour .

I guess all the decks are cold for me, because I fold a lot of hands anyway. And some players at FF know how I play and if I put it out there, they believe it. So by that I can do a little bluffing, and I do pick up some pots like that. But if you are new to the game, I would not advise it, as most here will say too. I guess I'm saying, you have to make your own style. And be able to move away from it a minute. Take a chance. That's the game.

I think you should try to understand more about reesteal , techniques chips theft , as will as well at the beginning , with a good stack on average tournament or next bubble , is a good time to invest in favorable situations ... .what I want to say is forget the cards , use your stack in situations to steal chips without showdown , this requires good reading , study and enjoy !!!!