Rag Hole Cards
Hi,
The other night, I was in a weekly game with 8-10 players. Tables were very passive at the start, lots of players have called the big blind and have never raised before the flop, they were tight. Do you think such situation can justify playing rag hole cards?
Well, for me, you can expect players to have at least one face card as they’re tight. Though I have face cards then I wouldn’t be that confident in case I flop a pair. However if I play rags and then pair middle or top pair on the flop, someone with Ace King might call me to the river to win win. In addition, if I flop 2 pair or be in a great tension with a straight or full house at the turn or river, it’s impossible there’d be someone who won’t believe I’d stay to the river with those cards.
Once in a certain game, I was the chip leader and decided to play a 4 – 6 off suit. Flop back then was 5 Q 6 rainbow. Later I flopped middle pair and stayed as I had a big stack and bets were okay. Turn came and brought 7. River followed and was an 8. I had only 1 opponent, he had J Q, top pair. I then decided to raise and was actually called. He can’t believe I played my hand to the river.
Any thoughts?
Many thanks,
Tristram
Tristram,
If you have a table of tight players, you can consider playing your rag cards, especially if you can get in cheap. However if you miss and face resistance, get out of the hand.
If you are a chip leader, you can open up your hand ranges with the hopes of trying to bust shorter stacks or hit lucky and add chips to your stack.
