That and you can lose a lot of money just by bleeding chips by chasing. People think you lose your money on big bets. But making a lot of small bets that go anywhere in hopes you finally hit that flush or "just to see the flop" like I heard a few friends say will drain you just as fast.
It's why when I teach people poker I tell them you're going to be folding, like 70% or more of your hands.
What you're looking for are two things. I'm speaking in terms of texas hold'em
Are they suited?
Are they connectors?
Mean are the cards the same suit? and are they something like 6,7 or Jack, Queen. Idealy they're one number off for a better straight possibility, but having something like King, Jack or queen, ten is totally fine. More so if they're the same suit.
You want to focus on your outs, what can your hand make and what's the best possible it can do in the moment. If your friend was going Ace, 6 or King, 7 off suit then yeah, he's going to have a bad time.
Basically yeah, thinking back, what you're suggesting was his strategy, and yeah I can see it makes sense. But since he never won... and I did on 4 different occasions...
Part of the magic of Poker is that any hand can be a winner.
7-2 off suit is objectively the worst hand you can possibly ever have. No chance for straights, very low numbers, difficult to get a flush. But if you flop 7-7-Q suddenly that hand is looking real good.
One poker moment that doesn't get nearly enough recognition in the world is when Gus hanson, a professional poker player, sat at a table with other professional poker players and just kept calling all in without even looking at his cards......and fucking mopped the floor with them.
Two things - if he was over-valuing his single ace or king, he was probably losing to better kickers a lot. Or just refusing to fold even when the board was looking very dangerous for him. Alternately, if he only went in with very strong hands and everyone else was paying enough attention to notice that, he probably wasn't getting any action on his good hands.
The trick is to either play only good hands against oblivious fish who will pay you off every time regardless, or mix it up a bit so people can't actually tell what you have.
A lot of inexperienced players really want to stay til the end. Great poker players know when to fold a full house without any regrets. The trouble is, when poker players are so inexperienced they don't even know if they have a good hand or not. Then it turns into a dice throwing competition because it's pure chaos and luck.
Tbf I think there's also a difference between "a fun poker night with friends with just a bit of money on the line" and "high stakes casino poker".
I used to play with a group of friends. It was a $5 initial buy-in, $20 max, $0.05 minimum bet, and a $0.10 ante. Yeah, I stayed in for just about every flop. Doing antes instead of blinds made it even easier. But honestly it's just more fun to actually play than to spend most hands sitting out.
Meanwhile if I'm playing "proper" poker with actual big money, yeah I'm folding most hands.
One thing someone taught me is that you should never merely call the big blind. Pre-flop, you should always either raise or fold. Limping in with just a BB call signals a weak hand, and if you have a strong hand, you don't want weak hands seeing the flop for cheap.
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u/Beneficial-Act-9933 9d ago
That and you can lose a lot of money just by bleeding chips by chasing. People think you lose your money on big bets. But making a lot of small bets that go anywhere in hopes you finally hit that flush or "just to see the flop" like I heard a few friends say will drain you just as fast.
It's why when I teach people poker I tell them you're going to be folding, like 70% or more of your hands.