Staying Aggressive with a Weak Hand

A big mistake that many new players make is to play a weak hand aggressively and then wimp out and stop playing it aggressively. If you are going to treat your weak hand like a strong hand, then you need to be consistent. You cannot bet strong before the flop (to tell your opponents you have a strong hand) and then play it like it is weak on the flop or turn. The key to successfully turning your weak hand into a strong hand is to stay aggressive with your weak hand all the way through the hand until it is over.

Staying aggressive with a weak hand is going to make your opponents believe that you have a strong hand. Even if your hand is weak, your opponents won’t know that. Unless they have a monster you should be able to get them off the hand with a strong enough act. It all depends on how good of an actor you are. Staying consistent with your story is the start of it all.

Your hand – 5 3 off suit

Here is the situation.

You are last to act so you have best position and 6 people limp in. You decide that this is a good time to steal a decent pot so you raise 5 times the big blind. Everyone ends up folding except for two other players. You can tell that they do not want to call but they do anyways in hopes to get lucky. It is obvious to them that you have a good hand but in your head you know you only have 5 3. You were just hoping to take the pot before the flop.

A(h) K(d) 7(s)

The flop hits pretty bad for you and it is checked around to you. You are thinking that you are in trouble, but stop and think about it for a minute. You are playing with pretty straight forward players and none of them raised before the flop. The best hand you can put one of them on is A 7 or K J. Either way you should still have them worried. Of course you are thinking you are in trouble, but remember that you raised pretty big before the flop. You could easily represent that you have AK here and bet it like you do.

Your opponents all checked to you and are just waiting for you to bet so they can say “AK huh” and fold. If you do not bet here then you are just asking to get busted. If you are going to pull off a move like this then you really need to stay aggressive with your weak hand. If your cards would have hit, then they wouldn’t expect it and you would get paid off. If your cards did not hit and big cards did (which is what happened here) then they will expect that you hit and have no problem folding. Not only did you win the pot you set out to win but you also won 10 more big blinds along with it. It is all about staying consistent and continuing to be aggressive.