Suited Connectors – Poker Strategy

Suited connectors are pretty hands but they are easily overvalued by newer players. The problem with suited connectors is that they don’t result in big hands as often as we’d like to think.

Suited connectors don’t make strong hands very often, but when they do hit hands, they will surprise the pants off your opponents. For suited connectors to be profitable hands, a number factors need to be in place:

1. You need to be in late position

2. There should already be several people in the pot

3. You need to be able to get into the pot cheaply

4. The average stack size of the people in the pot should be 70 big blinds or larger

If you wait until these factors are all in place, your profits with suited connectors will soar. You need to get in cheap but still have the chance to take home a large pot. With several people in the pot with large stacks, it becomes more likely that you’ll get action from someone.

It requires patience to play suited connectors properly because it’s not often that all the above factors line up when you have a suited connector. That’s where a lot of people go wrong; they don’t want to wait for the right situation to play these pretty looking hands.

About Position

The problem with playing suited connectors from early position is two-fold. First of all, you don’t know what your opponents are going to do behind you. The big stacks might all fold or something might put in a big raise. In both cases, you just played a suited connector for no reason.

Even if you do get lucky and get in for cheap from early position, you’re still going to have to play the rest of the hand while acting first on every street. Any draws you happen to catch are going to be very difficult to chase profitably. Had you been in late position, it would have been much easier to judge your pot odds with everyone else acting before you.

Multi-way Pots

Having several people in the pot with you will make your suited connectors more profitable for two reasons:

1. You’ll be more likely to get good odds to chase your draws

2. It’s more likely you’ll get action when you catch a strong hand

With several people in the pot, you’ll get good odds on any draws you hit because the pot will be large compared to the average bet size. Let’s use two examples:

Example 1: You’re in a $100 pot with 3 other people. If one person bets $50 and two other people call, you’re going to be getting $250 to $50 (5 to 1) on your draw.

Example 2: You’re in a $100 pot with 1 other person. If he bets $50, you’re only going to be getting $150 to $50 (3 to 1) on your draw.

As you can see, the drawing situation is a lot better when there are other people in the pot. If you played the hand from late position like you should have, you’ll be able to call those bets without worrying about people behind you making big raises.

Even when you do hit a hand with a suited connector, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to make money with it. You need to get someone else to put money in the pot with you. With more people in the pot, you will be more likely to get action from one of your opponents.

Getting In Cheaply

It’s important to only play suited connectors when you can get in for a cheap price. All those raises you call with suited connectors add up over time. Before you know it, all that money can totally devour any profits you might have made with your suited connectors.

It doesn’t seem like much money at the time but you have to realize that in the long range, the money you spend seeing flop drastically impacts your earnings with suited connectors.

The only time you should call a raise with a suited connector is when several other people with large stacks have already called that raise. And every once in a while you can call a preflop raise with a suited connector if you’re playing in a heads-up situation and are planning to steal the pot after the flop.

Stack Sizes

You should only play suited connectors against opponents with large stacks. There’s no point in spending the money if the amount you can win from that opponent is severely limited. Save the cash for when you’re up against someone who has a lot of money to lose.

Read more about building pots with made hands here

Going All-In

In tournament situations, suited connectors are sometimes good hands to make a last ditch effort. If you find yourself extremely short stacked without a lot of time to look for a strong hand, suited connectors are decent hands push all-in with.

Hopefully you’ll just fold everyone out and get the blinds but if not, your suited connector stands a decent chance. Against big pairs like AA and KK, a suited connector stands the best chance of causing an upset.

On top of that, both of your cards will probably be live. What I mean by “live” is that your hand won’t be dominated by another hand that has the same cards in it. If you go all-in with A7 and someone calls with AK, your ace outs are worthless. With a suited connector, you’ll have a slightly better chance.