Frustration and strategy behind raising with non-premium hands?

I'm growing frustrated with the way certain players play. Is there nothing I can do but take note of their actions and hopefully profit from it in the future? Here's one example. Very first hand, I'm in the big blind I have a playable hand A-8 of hearts. Guy across from me raises it to more than 3 times the big blind. Everybody folds except one guy chooses to call. The flop is like Q-3-7 He proceeds to go all in, his one caller folds and he shows he was bluffing the whole time with K-8 after taking down the pot. The thing that really frustrates me is players raising with non-premium hands. Is this something I should be doing often? It bothers me because I am often card dead, and when I get a semi-decent hand that I'd be happy to limp with someone has raised it so I generally fold to them, then I see what they raised it with and it's really frustrating.

Bluf is the part of the game everyone sometime uses to bild up their chip stack. Only thing is that U realy have to make image of a tight player that it could work, and pray that someone dosnt have in hands cards that U R blufin that U have.
I also hate to see when someone raises me few times big and I fold nice cards, and when I call them they show 4 9 offsuited. What I hate more is when they beat me with those cards.

You can Work on calling or raising the pots you positive of winning, etheir you where setting a trap or got the nuts and you know he WILL call/raise all the way to the river.

Practice your "self control" because YOU are your worst enemy. Dont let the results bother, instead lurn from these players and there tactic, remember there tells, when they check for example. You can also look at the table before taking your sit and decide if THESE ARE THE RIGHT PLAYERS for MY style of play ""cash games only""

Just remember how they beat you and correct your mistakes. But on the other hand you can still play a hand the right way and lose.

Dont pay that fool off, just wait to stick it to him and take him out of the tourney or take all the cash he's willing to reload with!

What I do to help me cooldown is remembering all the 2 outer i cauth and the beautifull suck out that kept me alive.

Dont stress, just play the games the best way you can and maybe with a bit off luck you might piss off some of those ppl by taking all there chips away in the long run.


Ps. Dont play Crapy card it wont make you a winner.

You've just learned the power of position. You were smart to fold and your opponent was an idiot for showing his hand. (I won't get into the flat-caller's mistake.)

It takes some nerve but you can use this info. The villain obviously is not afraid to steal with garbage and at some point you'll need to defend your big blind against him.

If this is a SNG or tournament of some kind, let the blind levels guide you.
Table bullies are always looking for soft targets...they do NOT like being played back at. Select some hands you feel comfortable with...a fairly broad range so it's more than QQ+ and AK, and fight back.

If you're fairly deep-stacked (20+ BBs) re-raise him intending to fold all but the best of these to a re-re-raise from him. If you're under 20BB, re-raise him all-in.

This is not a play to use against tight players or when you have no reads at all. But once you've decided you're being targeted by someone you have to fight back.

Oh, and yes, sometimes you'll be wrong lol.

It's not a bad idea to play marginal hands when you have position. You don't have to raise more than 3xBB but you should raise more than min-raise. 2.5-3xBB is good depending on your stack (NOT your hand).

If you're not comfortable raising with a marginal hand then just do it rarely. Consider it money spent. What do you get for spending this money?

1) Sometimes you hit your marginal hand. Since you raised you pushed off the other marginal hands and the remaining hands probably didn't get hit. Example:
You raise 3xBB with 8s7s. Flop comes out low, say 8h 5s 2d. You pair up one of your cards. Who else is in the hand? Probably hands that got missed by that flop. Fire a shot at the pot and see what happens. 2/3-3/4 the pot. You might even make your straight, then you're going to get paid off.

You can even do this if the flop missed you but came out low. If you get resistance, fold. You'll pull down more pots than you expect. The trick is to know when to get out.

2) If you're playing generally tight this will help loosen your table image so your made hands will get paid. If you never play with "losing" hands then you won't get enough chips in the pot against you when you have your opponent crushed. You're going to have to throw chips in on non-premium hands to do this.

Just remember. Do it in position. Button or Cutoff. Stay away from complete trash. Connectors (sooted!) are what you're looking for. Nothing lower than 85 unless you're sure you can out play your opponent after the flop.

coolnout said:

...and when I get a semi-decent hand that I'd be happy to limp with someone has raised it so I generally fold to them, then I see what they raised it with and it's really frustrating.

Click to expand...

Most of your post has already been addressed, but I would like to address this part. Namely, the fact that you should almost NEVER be limping with any hand, much less marginal or "semi-decent" hands, unless you are in LP and are looking at a full table of limpers (i.e. can see a big pot for little money on a table full of passive players).

I forget who said it, but "if it's good enough to call, it's good enough to raise." So stop limping (especially from EP and MP) and start either raising or folding. Particularly open limping (i.e. being the first person to act on the pot, by limping) is a big no-no.

That's my two cents, hope that helps.