S
Sopt
Rock Star
Platinum Level
None of us is a pure robots and everyone has some preference for the hands they like or dislike to play for whatever reason. Through your poker careers you surely encountered a hand that is statistically good but you really don't like to play.
For me such hand is A10o and as rational person I imagine myself to be, this one comes down to pure superstitions.
Back when I was starting to play poker me and my friends looked at the charts of what good hands and what bad hands are supposed to be. A10 would surely fall into the category of a good hand to have pre-flop. It has an ace, it has a possibility to make a straight with just 3 other cards and it's not really a hand that people put you on, when you see some 2x10 boards. So what is there not to like about it?
Well in my case this is the hand that gave me a lot of frustrations back in my early days. With my friends we entered a student poker league. It was organized every month with some nice merchandise for final table participants (poker books, card packs, chip boxes ect.) and an invite to a local yearly tournament with over 50k in prize pool, for those who accumulated most points over all tournaments.
So we enter the tournament and in the first one I get pretty far. Last 2 tables with 6 people each are being played. I was a bit of a short stack with around 13-14 blinds left. I get A10o in CO with no action before me. I decide to raise 4bb, as I was too scared to just push. SB calls, everyone else folds. Flop comes A 10 5 rainbow. SB checks, I bet bit over half the pot and SB calls. Turn comes 8, still rainbow. SB goes all in. I think a bit and call. SB reveals A8. River? You guessed it, another 8. So I'm out of tournament 12th place.
Second time around nothing special happened. Cards just didn't come that day so I exit early.
Third tournament I make it deep again. 11 people left in a tournament and I'm really short stacked (around 4bb left). I get A10o in BB and there is no action up to SB. He pushes all in to steal the blinds and I call. He reveals K2o. He hit a K on a turn and my hand hit nothing.
Fourth tournament I go deep again, this time actually making final table with a middle of the pack stack. I get A10o (ace of spades) in MP1 with no action before me. I standard raise 3bb. CO and BB calls. Flop comes 5 5 10 two spades. BB checks, I bet half the pot, CO folds, BB calls. Turn 6 of spades. BB checks, I decide to push him all in as he had only a few blinds left anyhow, he calls. He shows QJ of spades. I pray for another spade/5 or 10 on river, but those cards don't come, so I'm left with around 9bb after that hand.
The very next hand I get AKo and with no action before me I just push all in, banking on someone with weaker hand calling, thinking I'm tilting. Person that just won in our previous hand calls with A10o. Flop comes A K J rainbow and I'm feeling good about my hand. Turn comes Q making him a straight and river 4 doesn't help me.
After those 4 tournaments I always felt uneasy (even up to this day, which is about 15 years later) whenever I get an A10o in my hand and sometimes even hesitant to play it, even tho the statistics are saying to do it. I know that it comes down to randomness, but it was the start of my poker career and those beats really burnt into my memory. Gut feeling is just always telling me to avoid this hand and I believe it just comes down to superstition that this hand is cursed for me.
So what are the hands you dislike to play, even though they are really good hands? And what's the story behind it?
For me such hand is A10o and as rational person I imagine myself to be, this one comes down to pure superstitions.
Back when I was starting to play poker me and my friends looked at the charts of what good hands and what bad hands are supposed to be. A10 would surely fall into the category of a good hand to have pre-flop. It has an ace, it has a possibility to make a straight with just 3 other cards and it's not really a hand that people put you on, when you see some 2x10 boards. So what is there not to like about it?
Well in my case this is the hand that gave me a lot of frustrations back in my early days. With my friends we entered a student poker league. It was organized every month with some nice merchandise for final table participants (poker books, card packs, chip boxes ect.) and an invite to a local yearly tournament with over 50k in prize pool, for those who accumulated most points over all tournaments.
So we enter the tournament and in the first one I get pretty far. Last 2 tables with 6 people each are being played. I was a bit of a short stack with around 13-14 blinds left. I get A10o in CO with no action before me. I decide to raise 4bb, as I was too scared to just push. SB calls, everyone else folds. Flop comes A 10 5 rainbow. SB checks, I bet bit over half the pot and SB calls. Turn comes 8, still rainbow. SB goes all in. I think a bit and call. SB reveals A8. River? You guessed it, another 8. So I'm out of tournament 12th place.
Second time around nothing special happened. Cards just didn't come that day so I exit early.
Third tournament I make it deep again. 11 people left in a tournament and I'm really short stacked (around 4bb left). I get A10o in BB and there is no action up to SB. He pushes all in to steal the blinds and I call. He reveals K2o. He hit a K on a turn and my hand hit nothing.
Fourth tournament I go deep again, this time actually making final table with a middle of the pack stack. I get A10o (ace of spades) in MP1 with no action before me. I standard raise 3bb. CO and BB calls. Flop comes 5 5 10 two spades. BB checks, I bet half the pot, CO folds, BB calls. Turn 6 of spades. BB checks, I decide to push him all in as he had only a few blinds left anyhow, he calls. He shows QJ of spades. I pray for another spade/5 or 10 on river, but those cards don't come, so I'm left with around 9bb after that hand.
The very next hand I get AKo and with no action before me I just push all in, banking on someone with weaker hand calling, thinking I'm tilting. Person that just won in our previous hand calls with A10o. Flop comes A K J rainbow and I'm feeling good about my hand. Turn comes Q making him a straight and river 4 doesn't help me.
After those 4 tournaments I always felt uneasy (even up to this day, which is about 15 years later) whenever I get an A10o in my hand and sometimes even hesitant to play it, even tho the statistics are saying to do it. I know that it comes down to randomness, but it was the start of my poker career and those beats really burnt into my memory. Gut feeling is just always telling me to avoid this hand and I believe it just comes down to superstition that this hand is cursed for me.
So what are the hands you dislike to play, even though they are really good hands? And what's the story behind it?
