The Worst Hole Cards, Plus 6 Secrets About Doyle Brunson
...Things you NEED to know about poker!
BAD HAND GANG Most newcomers asked what the worst hole cards are in Texas Hold’em will trot out the usual reply they’ve read in all the standard books, namely seven-two. Whilst this is obviously true, it’s so true as to be irrelevant. Why? Because almost every player on receiving these cards is going to be tossing them away without betting. What you really need to be asking yourself, is, which hole cards are more likely to cost you real money in a real game? That’s a more subtle and important question. Quite a lot of hole cards like Ace-ten, Ace-Jack, Ace-Queen, King-Jack etc have an appeal and lure you into betting on them. It’s quite common (and on the surface quite reasonable) to raise pre-flop on hole cards of this quality. Therein lies the trap. These cards don’t tend to produce their promise in my experience during full table games. I can’t begin to count the times I’ve invested in this level of hole card and been “cracked” wide open by the turn or the river. Be cautious of these semi-glamorous cards unless you’re in a short-handed game where their value obviously increases.
POKER DOYLE-TY Every inch the King of Poker, Doyle Brunson does seem to generate a huge amount of mail from players on dailystarpoker.com. Here are some interesting facts about Royal Doyle you may not have known. 1) Brunson bet a pal $1,000,000 he could lose 100 lbs from his overly large Texan frame. You won’t be surprised to hear he won the bet. 2) Doyle’s career goes back over many decades but he is perhaps most famous for being the first poker player to win a $1,000,000 poker tournament. 3) Doyle and his son Todd, also an excellent poker player, are the first father and son pairing to have each won a bracelet at the World Series of Poker. Doyle has in fact won nine. 4) Brunson began the high roller’s concept of “living in a Las Vegas” hotel and is believed over the decades to have influenced the way all the big gaming hotels now happily offer “free suites” to the world’s biggest gamblers when they’re in town. 5) Asked who he would most like to play him in a movie of his remarkable life, Doyle shot back as fast as a pair of pocket rockets: “Robert Duvall!” 6) It’s true that Doyle won two of his World Series victories with humble 10-2 hole cards. Hence those cards are often referred to by professionals as Brunsons.
ALL THE ACES poker column: Friday, March 31, 2006: The Worst Hole Cards, plus 6 Secrets About Doyle Brunson
