Playing Suited Connectors Online.

Suited connectors are a very interesting starting hand in no limit Texas hold’em. If you are able to make a hand with them, it will likely be a very strong hand, and one that your opponent will have difficulty putting you on. On the other hand, if suited connectors are played too loosely they can end up costing you a lot of money and crippling your poker bankroll.

What are suited connectors?

Suited connectors are defined as hole cards that are the same suit and are come one after the other in rank. Some examples would be 8-9 of diamonds and 3-4 of spades. The reason suited connectors are appealing hole cards is because they have the best chance of hitting a flush or a straight out of all possible hole cards. In fact, suited connectors between 4-5 and 10-J have the greatest chance of drawing to a strong hand because they have the most possible straights associated with them. Suited cards that are two apart are also considered suited connectors, but these kind of suited connectors have a smaller chance of hitting a straight because the middle card must be hit to have a shot at the straight.

When should I play suited connectors?

Seeing a cheap multi-way flop is the ideal situation for suited connectors. Your hope is to hit the flop and have your small investment pre-flop turn into a large return, but if you miss the flop you can still get out of the hand very cheaply. Limping from early position with suited connectors is risky because there are still many players left to act who can raise the pot to more than you are willing to pay. In late position there is a smaller chance that someone left to act may raise the pot, so you can limp in or call a small raise with more confidence that this investment will actually allow you to see the flop.
Don’t play suited connectors with the short stack.

You will miss the flop the majority of the times you play suited connectors and for this reason you want to ensure that when you do hit the monster you get value out of it, and you can only get value if you have chips to bet. For this reason you should only call with your suited connectors if you have at least 20 times as many chips as you invested, so that you have enough chips to win a big pot if you hit the flop.

How do I get value from my suited connectors?

Suited connectors are often one of the best hands for getting value after you make a strong hand. Your opponents will often find it hard to put your on a hand, especially if you hit the straight. If you hit a straight you can build the pot slowly because the chances of a player drawing out on you are slim. On the other hand if you hit a flush with low suited connectors your hand is vulnerable to a higher flush if another card of the same suit hits. For this reason you should bet out aggressively to try to eliminate any hands could improve past yours and hope that other strong hands which are drawing dead, such as top pair, come along with you.

If you haven’t quite hit your hand yet, but are 4 to a flush or a straight then your table position and your opponents tendencies will greatly affect how you should play the hand. If you are facing a raise you should calculate your outs and determine your pot odds and implied odds when decided whether to call. If it is an aggressive player making the raise you should be more likely to call because if you do manage to hit one of your cards you will likely be able to increase the pot on the turn or river. If the pot was checked to you when you are on the draw you have the option to see the free card or try to take the pot down right away with a semi-bluff. You should consider the tendencies of your opponents when making this decision.

Summary

In conclusion suited connectors have the potential to become a monster hand that is hard for your opponents to detect. However, the majority of the time you will miss the flop and for this reason you want to ensure that when you do play suited connectors, you have a large enough chip stack to win a big pot the times that you do hit. You have to take into account whether you hit a straight or a flush, as well as your table position and opponent’s tendencies when you are trying to gain value from your suited connectors.

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