When we give poker advice, a lot of times it leads the beginning player to learn the wrong way at online sites like Everest Poker Francais. In a perfect world, the majority of hands that yield big money aren’t worth playing if you’re only analyzing the two cards. We call this looking at the hand in a vacuum. But this is a totally incorrect way of looking at the game of poker online. There are too many other variables to consider, two of the most important being pot odds and position. And if the conditions are right, even a mediocre hand may be worth the gamble.
Here’s an example. You’re sitting on Q-6 clubs at the cutoff (just before the button). Two players in front of you limp in. The blinds are 10/20. Normally, this hand isn’t worth playing, but if you look at your position (only the button has better post flop position) and the odds (you put in 20 here to potentially win 70), you’re getting better than 3:1 odds to see the flop and possibly hit a decent hand.
So you limp, too. The small blind raises to 120. Big blind folds and the first limper folds, but the second limper calls. So you have 420 in a the pot, and you only have to call 100 more to see it. Again, given your position and the odds, you can play this hand 4.2:1 aren’t bad odds. Had the second limper not called, your odds would be exactly 3:1, and you should probably re-evaluate the situation and player before you make the call, but with 3:1 I’d probably still make the call, and most definitely would with 4:1 odds.
So you call and the flop comes T-6-2, two hearts. You flopped middle pair with second kicker and a flush draw. The big blind raises to 300, making the pot 720. You have a little under 2:1 here, but you already have a pair and you can draw to a flush, two pair, or a set theoretically. You make the call and the Ace of Hearts comes out.
A fourth heart comes out on the river, and you bet out and your opponent folds. This is a prime example of using position and odds to play a less than favorable hand and still get a favorable outcome.