The Playability of Hands

Whilst the table in the previous article will put you in good stead for playing winning poker there are times when you should deviate from this strategy, especially once you get more experienced. For example, if you have a player seated next to you who is raising every single hand, you should be playing a lot looser than we suggested. This is because your opponent’s raise no longer suggests that they have a good hand.

But this doesn’t mean you should be playing every hand that you are dealt, we want to select our hands carefully. That is what this article is about, defining which hands are the suitable when we widen our range.

What Is a Hand With Good Playability?

Obviously, the hands with the best playability are those that we already have in our starting range. Generally, the stronger the value of the hand, the better playability it has. But that isn’t much use to us when we’re thinking about widening our range, so we must explore the next level of hands.

Rather than going through every single hand that you can possibly be dealt, it’s best to lay down some general rules and let you come to the correct conclusions. There are a few basic ground rules that determine the playability of a hand.

Connectivity

What we mean by this is that the values of the cards are close to one another. An example of a connected hand is 9T. The reason that this increases the playability of a hand is that it can make a greater number of straights and straight draws than unconnected hands.

An added bonus is the fact that these straights can often be disguised to our opponents. If we have 9T and the flop reads 78J, our opponent is unlikely to think we have a straight when we raise. However, if we have a hand like K5, and the board reads TJQA and we raise our opponent, it’s quite obvious that we hold a straight.

Connectivity value decreases the further the cards get away from each other, so 9T is a very connect hand, 8T is called a one-gapper, and 7T is called a two-gapper. Obviously, 9T is better than 8T, which is better than 7T.

Suitedness

Suited hands are much more desirable than offsuited hands, and not just because they look pretty. Having suited hands increases our chances of hitting a flush, and allows us the chance to hit flushdraws and bet and raise as a semi-bluff (something we will learn about in the near future).

As with the connected hands, having suited hands disguises our hand when we hit flushes much more than if we hit a flush with only one card of that suit.

High Card Value

This one is really simple. The higher the cards you have, the more chance you have of hitting a high pair hand on the flop. Because, as we know, the higher a pair the better it is. High card value can also sometimes win us the pot at showdown with no made hand.

What Are The Best Types of Hand Then?

Hands that combine these three vital aspects of playability are the best hands to have. This is why a hand like AKs is so valuable, because it combines the two highest cards with connectivity and suitedness. We have many of these types of hands in our starting hand selection to begin with, but when faced with an extremely loose player we can start calling their raises with weaker holdings, such as 9Ts and 68s.

Summary

• We want to play more hands when we are facing looser opponents, but we want to select which hands to add into our range carefully
• The hands we add in depend on their playability
• A hand has greater playability if it is suited, connected, or has high card value
• The best types of hand combine two or all of these aspects