To play a marginal hand is to play a hand that doesn’t have too much of an edge which means that it is a very small percentage of a favorite to play over the long run. When you play marginal hands you are also running into the problem of whether or not you know how to play the hand to get value from it correctly. There are a lot of players who start to learn about poker and begin to think that they have learned and know much more than they actually do. Do not be like these foolish players. Poker is a game that you must be completely honest with yourself about and surrender yourself to the fact that you are learning and there is much to learn. Even when you start to think you get the hang of the game and move to the next limit, you will see that the game then evolves and you will play a much more complicated game.
Stealing With Marginal Hands
One of the best ways to turn marginal hands into profitable situations is to steal with them. You can take a hand like 45 suited and turn it into a profitable hand against tight players in your blinds because you can steal with it so often. When you are called by these tight players you then run a small chance of flopping big hands or draws to big hands. Tight players are normally playing hands like top pair top kicker in which your straights and flushes dominate.
You have to learn to take advantage of stealing with your marginal hands. This is where your long term edge will really meet with your short term wins/loses. When you play a lot of poker you will see the long term earnings add up by playing these marginal hands. Make sure you are trying to get extra value out of them by stealing with your marginal hands.
Pocket Pairs
There are too many players who will play any pocket pair to the death. These are good players as well. They understand that they are only trying to hit a set on the flop, but they do not think about the odds involved in this. If you have a loose opponent raising on the button against you while you are in the small blind, you should really just fold pocket pairs instead of calling with them. If your opponent has 16-1 odds for their stack to win it is correct to make a call in attempt to mine a set. Your implied odds are much less when the opponent who is raising is more than likely only on a steal attempt and will never pay you off.
When tight players are raising against you in the above situation then you need to think about their stack size compared to the bet you have to call. Again the 16-1 odds mean that you should call. When the tight player is a short stack with only 16-1 or slightly over it is such a marginal call that you shouldn’t even bother. You will normally miss and get shoved on which loses much more money than you win in the long run against your tight short stacked opponent.
Marginal Hands Feed Rakeback
When you play poker and receive rakeback playing marginal hands adds to your MGR (monthly gross rake) which increases the rakeback you will receive. This adds even more value to playing more marginal hands. When you take into consideration if you are clearing a bonus and getting rakeback those hands account for much more than adding a big blind to your hourly win rate. If you aren’t playing with rakeback then you are missing out. Right now you can sign up for an account at Full Tilt Poker using our Full Tilt Poker referral code TRACKRB and receive a 100% on up to $600 Full Tilt Poker deposit bonus along with 27% Full Tilt Poker rakeback. This means that you will receive a free $600 cash and also earn close to one third of your monthly rake back.
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