Trapped By Second Best

What is the most expensive hand in poker? Every poker player worth his salt knows it is the second best hand. They don't payoff for second at the track. It is not only the financial cost, but also the embarrassment. I still shudder to think of the times when the showdown was three handed and I was the bottom dog in that pile. Oh, it hurt. At that moment, if I had not been too lazy to work and too chicken to steal I would have given up poker forever.In low-limit poker there is so much chasing.

Chasing is when you should know that you have a second or third best but stay to try to catch a card that will make you the winner. Say you have a buried pair of sevens in Seven Card Stud. You call and a good player pairs his door card a tent on the next card. He bets and you call. Why on earth would you call? Yet it happens all the time. He certainly has the better hand and even if you should catch a seven God forbid you are probably still way behind.

Suppose you have that rag hand of a pair of jacks in Texas Hold 'Em. The flop comes king-six-six. It is bet and raised before it gets back to you. What out there can you beat? Yet most low-limit players will call with those shabby jacks. (Of course, you should call if the pot is big enough, which it seldom is.)

Let me quote a dear old friend who is a guru to me at the poker table. He has said, ''Why draw to a hand that you cannot raise with if you hit it?" Think about that and apply it to your play. Most of us are so anxious to play that we take almost any old draw hand and try to get lucky (like for example, the player who will play a nine-three of hearts, hoping for a heart flush in Texas Hold 'Em). Even if you should catch your flush (about a 5 percent shot), you would be afraid to raise with it. So why play it?

THERE IS NO SILVER MEDAL IN POKER

The same concept of avoiding second best hands in Seven Card Stud is to not draw at a straight when another player has three to a suit showing on fifth street. Why do it? If he bets or raises, get out. Even if you make the straight, you can't raise with it. Second best is trouble. Expensive trouble. Avoid those circumstances if at all possible.

It is terribly important to recognize where you are at in each and every hand of poker. You can usually avoid trouble if you select quality starting hands and improve quickly. If you don't improve, strongly consider retiring. If you should play modest or marginal hands and don't make a drastic improvement, get out. Low-limit poker has enough dangers without tempting fate. Don't be the one caught going uphill. Make the turkeys try to catch you, not the other way around. Stay away from second best!