5 Poker Hands You Should Avoid Playing

Today we will give you the top 5 poker hands that poker amateurs love to play, but poker pros know how to avoid. We have to point out that some of these hands on this list have to be played in certain situations, such as if it’s folded to you on the button or small blind, which are actually highly profitable situations to play these hands. Also if you’re a tournament player and you’re super late in tournament on a short stack, then yes, you absolutely need to be playing some of these hands, but in all normal situations, these are the top 5 hands that poker amateurs tend to overvalue, while poker pros understand that these hands are trouble and they will cost you money in the long run.
 
Counting down from five to one, this is the fifth worst poker hand that amateurs love to play.

5. QT offsuit

A lot of poker amateur overvalue this hand whether it’s suited or not suited. QT is just simply a hand that screams trouble. And the reason why is, because you end up playing a lot of top pair kind of pots with this hand and the biggest problem is, when you get into a big hand with top pair, someone has always got a better kicker than you. That is because people don’t tend to play worse Queen hands like Q9 or Q8, but they tend to play AQ, KQ, QJ which are hands that all have you dominated from the start. Of course this hand can hit a straight sometimes, but we all know that straights don’t come around that often in poker. It’s definitely one of those hands that we refer to as ‘trap hand’, because it gets you in trouble a lot.

So if you’re in one of the first positions to act at a poker table, and you’re not super short stacked at a tournament, we highly recommend folding this hand as all poker pros know this hand is trouble.

4. T7 suited

 A lot of players love the suited connectors, suited 1-gappers and 2-gappers, but these hands are not long term winners. They tend to think that they will make straights and flushes on a regular basis, but again, those combination really don’t come around that often in poker and also with these hands that are 1-gappers or 2-gappers they also tend to not make very good straights and as many straights as a suited connector.

The other thing with a hand like this is, that a lot of amateurs end up playing for a top pair situation and once again opponents will never have a worse kicker than you.
 
Finally with a hand like this, sometimes you are going to get flush over flushed as well. If there are 3 diamonds on the board and you’ve got T7 of diamonds and someone wants to play a big pot with you, they will flip over the A2 or the KQ of diamonds and you’re going to be wonderigs once again how unlucky you are.
 
We are not saying to never play this hand, but for all of these reasons, it gets a lot of poker amateurs in trouble, especially if you are first to act at the table.
 

3. 64 suited

This is another one of these low suited 1-gappers that amateurs play way too much and overvalue it. It has a lot of the same problem as T7 suited, as opponents will always have better kickers or overpairs and is also absolutely begging to get flush over flushed.

A hand like this can make a nice hidden straight, but it does not happen often, as we know by now. Suited connectors make more straights than 1-gappers and 2-gappers. So for all of these reasons, you typically do not want to be playing a hand like this. Most poker pros avoid these hands as they understand that they are simply trouble.

2. K9 offsuit or suited

K9 is a really bad hand and it will cost you A LOT of money over your poker career. As we mentionted with previous hands, this is also one of those hands, that when you hit your top pair, you will almost always have a worse kicker. Simply because people don’t play worse King hands than yours. If you play a bigger pot with this hand, opponents will always flip over AK, KQ, KJ.

The other thing about this hand is that it makes a bad straight, as you will always have to worst side of straight as your opponent.
K9 is a classic ‘trap hand’ that poker amateurs overvalue far too much and you will save yourself a ton of money if you start avoiding this hand.

1. A7 offsuit or any other lower offsuit Ace

A7 and any other of these middle Aces like A6, A5, A4… poker amateurs tend to overvalue far too much and what you need to undestand, is that these hands will get you in far too much trouble post flop for all of the same reasons, as every other hand in this article.

So let’s go over those main reasons:

1. BAD TOP PAIR – Opponents will never play worse Aces and you will lose pots to hands like AK, AQ, AJ..
2. THEY CAN ONLY MAKE ONE STRAIGHT – It is also a straight that everyone can easily see as it is not hidden at all.
3. YOU WILL ONLY WIN SMALL POTS AND LOSE BIG POTS

We highly recommend that you avoid this middle ace hand, as they will most of the time get you in trouble and lose you money on a long term.