All poker hands have a profit potential attached to them and that profitability is based on several factors. The first three factors are their high card potential, straight potential and flush potential. So a hand like Jc-10c is a much better hand than 7c-3d because it has straight potential, flush potential and also some high card potential while the latter hand doesn’t have anything. However there are other factors at work as well that affect the profitability. One such factor is your position and any hand irrespective of strength does better with good position.
When you look at any situation in a vacuum then it is possible for any hand to make money. It could be folded around to you on the button and you could raise with almost any two cards in no limit hold’em and if your opponents in the blinds have weak hands then your raise will take the pot. But this does not mean that raising with any two cards is a profitable long term strategy. There are also other dynamics at work here also and when hands have straight and flush potential then they make money in other ways by way of semi-bluffing.
Let us look at an example here to highlight what we are talking about. Your opponent raises from the cut-off and you call in the big blind with Jc-10c. The flop comes 9c-6c-4d and having a flush draw allows you to make an aggressive check-raise on the flop. This allows you to win the pot in two ways with the first being that you can win the hand without seeing a showdown if your opponent folds. Secondly of course you could make the flush and win the pot that way.
So much of the potential of a poker hand can be derived from what is known as fold equity and that is in reference to the money that has been contributed to the pot by your opponents who have then folded and how often your opponents fold in relation to the price of your bet. So when you are thinking about playing any poker hand then you need to assess how profitable the hand is likely to be based on the factors previously mentioned. If you can begin to look at poker hands in terms of hand making potential then you will improve your poker game beyond the players who do not think in this way.
Carl Sampson is a professional poker player who plays online at www.888poker.com
