Ask a poker player what their favorite starting hand in Texas Hold’em is and you’ll rarely hear the strongest statistical hands. It’s not pocket aces or pocket kings that’s the most common response – it’s always the suited connectors 4-6 suited, 6-7 suited, T-8 of spades … these are always the answers I hear.
While winning a big hand with pocket jacks or ace-king is good and fine, there seems to be an added level of enjoyment from players when they drag that big pot with a junky suited hand. Let’s break down the actual strategic value of these fan-favorite starting poker hands and when and where it’s best to play them.
Depth is a Major Factor
Depth is going to be one of the two major factors determining whether your suited connector is worth playing or not. The strength of these low-suited hands comes in the form of deception and implied odds.
With this hand class, we are typically not winning big pots with one pair or on the strength of our kicker (as with a hand like AK or AQ). Instead, we are looking to make straights and flushes, and often leveraging the power of our draws to pressure our opponents. Sometimes the combined power of a draw and aggression is enough to win the pot without even making our hand.
But when is the best time to use these poker hands? At what depth? With the hand class, deeper stacks are going to be our ally. Opening or taking a flop at shallow depths with these hands only makes sense in a few specific situations, usually in the BB (big blind) or near the button. There simply isn’t enough play postflop and enough stack left behind to navigate profitably with this hand class. If we think broadly for a moment, most of these suited connectors do not materialize into strong hands until the turn or river. It’s quite rare to flop a flush or a straight in Hold ‘Em.
At shallow depths, we’re often not given the right price to draw to our big payday. By the time we’ve paid a few BBs preflop and a few more on the flop, there isn’t much left to play for behind. Math is against us in these scenarios as the implied odds are not there to draw to our poker hand and make a big pot. Also, our other option of pressuring out our opponents with semi-bluffs is frequently not good either, as bluffing poker players off one pair at low SPRs (stack to pot ratio) is a risky endeavour.
The Position
Position is the other guiding factor on whether we get to see a flop with our favorite suited connector. While naturally we are able to open more of these types of hands as we get closer to the button in a poker game, the more challenging exercise is finding when to call or 3-bet them. A hand like 67s plays well at deep stacks, but can we play it UTG+1 v UTG? We have to be aware of all the players behind us. It is often prudent to fold these lower suited hands in early positions and only play them vs an open in later positions.
With deeper stacks, there is also room for creativity in playing these suited connectors as a 3-bet from time to time. We can mix these raises in from all positions. One interesting dynamic we’ve learned with computers and the being able to visualize range interaction is that re-raising suited combinations can often fold out dominating hands of the unsuited variety. For example, re-raising from the BB v the button at 100BB with 78s is going to fold out hands like A7o, K8o, and 89o. This dynamic of clearing out dominating poker hands preflop can prove profitable on later streets.
Putting it All Together
While mixing depth and position should be the core of your decision process with these suited connectors, we have to be aware of other factors as well. How is the skill level of your competition at the table? Are we seeing lots of multi-way flops? Are there a lot of 3-bets and squeezes preflop?
These dynamics also go into the algebra of when to enter a pot with a suited connector. Generally, the softer your competition, the more you can get away with playing your favorite hands!
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