Can someone tell me what do they do when you are dealt unplayable cards before the flop? I'm talking about playing cards like 7-2, 9-2, k-2, 8-3, 3-10, and then cycle again over and over. To me, there is nothing you can do when the cards just so happens falls opposite of what you expect. Do you keep on playing or do you quit? This causes me to go on tilt, and I hate it! Makes me want to quit poker!

I press the fold button.

Play a zoom variant where you can fast fold and get a new hand immediately.

Actually, the bolded is your biggest error. There are far, far more unplayable hands than good ones. You should expect that in every poker session you will spend most of your time folding the cards you are dealt.

Fold them and move on to the next hand. Winning poker is about patience. The paradox of poker is that most people are enticed into playing because of the gambling aspect, but to win you need to stop gambling and start playing the odds.

Dug this out of a thread of mine from yesteryear...taking about variance,,,but a nugget about being card dead too

If you go five cycles around without playing a hand (nine handed), you're down 7.5BB. The vary next hand you pick up KK and 4XBB PFR and get two callers. Flop falls without an ace and you pot it,,, both fold. You're up half a BB playing 46 hands. Not bad for card dead really. I'm guessing in the next 45 hands, you get a few more hands to play..and win. What I'm trying to say is variance can be caused by playing marginal hands in marginal situations. If you are card dead, you are supposed to break even or lose a little. Don't force it! It's not really variance when you are playing when you shouldn't.... it's just bad play.

I guess the fold button will be worn out in a few games! What I am saying is out of say 50 hands, I may see the 7-2 alone at least 25 times without seeing any broadway cards. And, after folding so many times, you become a target. I guess you could call it tilt if you keep playing. Thanks!

I am pretty sure you're not seeing 7-2 25 times out of 50 hands. The chances of that are infinitesimal.

Like someone else said, play zoom (or whatever your pokerroom's version is). Makes folding much easier.

Good advice. Even though I played for an MTT for 1 hour 55 minutes last night and never saw a pair, I'll tell you this anyway.

Yes, if you're patient you will usually (not always, of course) get a hand that might be good enough to completely change your situation. After all, on average you'll be dealt a pair one out of every 17 hands (about once every two orbits of a 9-player table.)

There have been plenty of times when I wasn't getting anything for a while. I would be something like 34th of 43 players, I was dealt 66 and shoved, doubled up and I was in contention.

I'm going to quote something WereBeer said in a nearby thread:

"your first challenge is being able to fold for 2 hours in a row, get a hand, flop badly, fold and then go back to folding preflop without tilting."

To make money playing poker in the long run, you have to be a better player than the other players at your tables over the same long run. There are many aspects of poker skill. One is the ability to see each hand in a vaccuum. J9o, for example, is a fold preflop on the button facing a raise. Period. The fact that you folded the previous 30 hands changes NOTHING - each hand is an individual. And like WereBeer mentioned, you finally pick up KK, you raise, you get 3 callers and the flop contains an A. You're not putting another penny in the pot. The fact that you folded the previous 30 hands and will likely have to fold the NEXT 30 hands changes NOTHING.

So don't look at it as boredom or frustration - look at it as a videogame where every time you fold an unprofitable hand you win a point. Other players won't have your patience and discipline and won't "score the points".

Hope that helps.

Are you referring to cash or tourneys? If it's tourneys then you re going to have to get creative or possibly even shove a pretty raggy hand depending on M/stack size. Finding good spots even when you are card dead is an art in itself and arguably an essential skill for a tournament player. Every player experiences periods like this in tourneys from time to time.
If you'r referring to cash then I'm an advocate of folding pretty relentlessly. Again maybe you can find some spots to play cards you normally fold. For example, a TAG opponent who is opening wide otb raises. You'r in the bb and have been folding your blinds a lot. You decide to 3 bet light to defend. Not saying you have to do this but if you feel you are being run over while card dead it may be worth playing back at an opponent. Patience is key. That can't be emphasized enough.

A target of what?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe poker isn't for you.

Just fold'em. You only need one (1) qualitative hand to make up for like 30+ quantitative hands.

Also if they are 1 gapper or connected suited they are playable.

Millennials needing instant gratification will surely struggle with this game. As with flying a plane......hours of boredom followed by 30 seconds of uber-adrenaline. Over and over and over and over and over again.

Old people needing instant gratification will surely struggle with this game. As with flying a plane......hours of boredom followed by 30 seconds of uber-adrenaline. Over and over and over and over and over again.

Middle aged guys needing instant gratification will surely struggle with this game. As with flying a plane......hours of boredom followed by 30 seconds of uber-adrenaline. Over and over and over and over and over again.

lol...ok, I suspect there are more of my offer than the other two combined.

Just for a second thought this thread was about something of interest to me...

Oh, I see it's not.

I fold.

I sometimes bluff some of the trash hands if I think it's +EV, also helps me maintain an image of a SHARK :V; which lets me get away with even more bluffs down the road.

I am working on my list of poker rules, modeled after the Gibbs rules on NCIS. One of those rules is "Never miss a hand." I take that very seriously.

If you're going to play for 8 hours, be prepared to play every single hand. One of the most important things you can do to pick up a good hand is to not miss it when it comes.

About a month ago I was in an online MTT as one of the smallest stacks, something like 36th of 40 with an M of about 4. The 5-minute break started and I went to the bathroom. I got back just in time to see my pocket queens get folded. I was out 4 hands later.

I didn't see the action or the other hands, but it's likely that if I had been there to shove those queens things would have been very different.

Why wouldn't you play them 100% of the time if they are +EV?

Me, I like to make my opponents think I barely made my way to the casino without bumping my head or forgetting to breath.

I just realized that in his post OP listed K2 as one of the unplayable hands. In some circumstances that K2o might be a very playable hand.

Any hand with an ace, king or suited queen has an equity edge over a random hand, let's start with that. If you have K2 in position and most of the table has folded K2 becomes a playable hand, especially if you've been playing tight (which gives you fold equity.)

Example: You're on the button. If you're getting low on chips and the action is on you after 2 players have limped, that's a pretty good spot to shove.

I can't believe you are serious about being dealt 7-2 25 out of 50 hands. So I don't think you are serious at all. Thanks for posting.