How to play marginal hands?

[Chutzpah]

Lot of tight players posted I see haha. I tend to fold these but I know of a few players who feel like these are aces... I agree about varying your game, I ought to try more.

 

[Eric Salvador]

I would start with understanding my opponents bet frequency. What types of hands do they open with and how do they bet them when they do. What is there tendencies in position and out of position. How often they fold on the flop to raises and 3bets. What streets are more common for them to fold. Those are just a few broad things to look at when analyzing your opponents. One of the many keys to being successful in poker is winning with the worst hands because you accurately broke down your opponents hand allowing you to bet an amount they wouldn't be willing to call.

 

[mariale_1990]

Personally, it depends on the situation and intuition, if I am forced to play with them, I play them carefully so as not to risk so much, many times it's like my intuition tells me: Call, I think it is advisable to see the position in which they are on the table, as are the other players at the table

 

[PKRNRS]

What do you do in a tournament when there are marginal cards hours in a row?

I try and play them cheaply. If limping in a multiway pot then you can clean up when they hit.

 

[Movebacke16]

Im gonna play marginal cards only if I got big stake

 

[DuffMcGruff]

Play them in position as an open raise. You can’t sit around waiting for great cards in a tournament. That will hurt your ROI. Look up open ranges online, preflop has been pretty close to solved.

 

[JBGoode]

I normally hold out for as long as I can. If your not playing many hands, and you start to get around the 10-18 BB range, and your still relatively around avg. stack, you can start using a good push fold range, and open shoving to pick up blinds. Cause a low Vpip will typically be respected.

 

[MikeCarasone]

Play them intelligently by folding them or while in position. No need to bleed chips when the cards aren’t very good. If you have a big stack then you can be more liberal with marginal holdings hoping to flop big and reel a big one in.

 

[Justin Bloomquist]

I just limp and see if I hit anything on the flop

 

[guccipix]

This is a great topic of conversation, and I think how someone plays under these circumstances really says the most about them as a poker player. Me personally, I like to raise marginal hands in position and try to get against just the BB or SB and C-bet if I miss the flop.

 

[Smokewood]

I take a chance and play these hands often in tournaments.
Key is to play them like they are strong hands and get people to fold.
Once there are only 2 or 3 players left, that marginal hand may be the table nutz...