PLAYER STRATEGY by
PHIL HELLMUTH JR.
POKER: Suited Connector Strategy
S
uited connectors can be a very powerful
Here is a case where Daniel invested $2,600
Texas Hold ’em. It is also a hand that
connectors works like a charm!
hand to play, and win with, when playing can be dangerous. This suited-connector
theory is very advanced and could be dangerous
to your bankroll’s health. I call it “Huck Seed’s Theory,” but in fact, I have used it myself in days
past. Huck is a professional poker player who can Phil Hellmuth Jr. is a 13time World Series of Poker Champion, leading all other poker players in the world. He is the author of two New York Times best sellers, and his latest book, “Deal Me In” is also widely popular. Visit PhilHellmuth.com to check out his latest blog, clothing line and exclusive poker tips and stories. This tip column is an excerpt from his Best Selling book “Phil Hellmuth’s Texas Hold’em” found on Amazon and in bookstores around the world.
play many different ways at different stages in a tournament or a side game. Be that as it may, he often plays this theory successfully, as does the talented Daniel Negreanu.
other players’ raises with
suited connectors such as
6d-7d or 8c-9c. These are
excellent drawing hands in NLH. Ideally, you would
want to call an opponent’s 4d-5d when he has another
yourself in a lot of untenable situations. What are you going to do when the flop comes down 2-3-8 and you have 8c-9c? You have flopped top pair, which is fairly powerful, but what happened when your opponent had J-J in the hole? Answer: you may lose a lot of chips! In fact, if you’re not careful, you may lose all of your chips in this situation.
$10,000 to $20,000. So, the
idea is to call a small bet from your opponent and
“THE IDEA IS TO CALL A SMALL BET FROM YOUR OPPONENT AND WIN A LARGE STACK WHEN YOUR HAND HITS.”
win a large stack when your hand hits.
Here is an actual hand I saw between Daniel Negreanu and two-time world champion Johnny
Chan at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in the $7,500 buy-in championship event in 1999. With the blinds at $400-$800 and more than $12,000
in front of him, Johnny opened the pot at $2,600 with A-K. Daniel called with 7s-9s and the flop came Ad-7d-7c giving Daniel trip sevens! Johnny
bet out small with $2,000 and Daniel made a
small $3,000 raise. After studying things for a while, Johnny moved all-in and Daniel quickly said, “I call.” Daniel wound up busting Johnny
out on this hand. Johnny, shocked, said to me a
few minutes later, “Can you believe this kid?” 26
The downside to playing like this is that you put
The theory involves calling
$400 bet with a hand like
“PLAYING SUITED CONNECTORS REQUIRES AN EXCELLENT READ ON YOUR OPPONENTS.”
to win more than $12,000 if he hit. The suited
| G A M I N G A N D D E S T I N AT I O N S . C O M
You can thus expect to have some severe chips swings when you play poker like this. When I watched Daniel use this approach in the world championship event in 2001, his chips were up to $450,000 (and had the chip lead) and then down to $70,000 and then up to $700,000 (and the chip lead again!) and then down to $170,000! Up and down, up and down is how it went with Daniel at this WSOP. He is a great NLH player, but these kinds of swings just can’t be good.
Let’s return to the hand above for a moment. Why was Johnny shocked by Daniel’s play in this hand? Because Daniel risked almost 20 percent of his own chips before the flop with 7s-9s. This was just too high of a percentage of his chips to risk with his hand. If you want to play this way, try not to risk more than seven percent of your chips before the flop with these suited connector hands. Playing suited connectors requires an excellent read on your opponents so that you don’t get yourself into trouble when you hit some of these hands halfway. Before you try this approach, make sure you are reading your opponents almost perfectly. I would never recommend this theory to a novice or intermediate-level player!