Suited Connectors In No-Limit Hold’em Revisited

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A few months back I wrote an article about playing suited connectors titled “How Suited Connectors Are Costing You Money.” The basic premise of the article was that a lot of people play suited connectors in the wrong situations and with the wrong expectations. If you’re limping in and calling raises preflop, you’re picking the wrong situations. You should be opening the pot and playing in position. And if you’re playing suited connectors with the sole goal of making a hand and winning a big pot, you have the wrong expectations. For suited connectors to show a profit, you can’t just lie back and wait for a hand. You have to attack and steal pots with them. If you play suited connectors in the wrong situations and with the wrong expectations, you’re costing yourself money.

But suited connectors aren’t all bad. Indeed, they can be quite nice no-limit hands if you play them well. Shortly after the original article was published, one of my readers alerted me to the discussion of a hand posted on the forums at InternetTexasHoldem.com and asked me for my thoughts.

Here’s a summary of the hand in question.

It’s a full ring online $0.50-$1 game played with $100 effective stacks. A player opens from three off the button for $3.50. The next player calls. The cutoff folds, and the action is to me on the button with 8 6 .

I’ve played with the open raiser before, so I know that his range to open from this seat is approximately any pair fives or better, A-T or better, A-8 suited or better, K-J or better, or Q-J.

I call the $3.50, and the blinds fold. So the pot is about $10.50 on the flop, there’s $96.50 behind, and the flop comes:

A 9 7

Everyone checks to me on the button, and I bet $8 into the $10.50 pot. The preflop raiser checkraises to $25, and the middle player folds. What now?

Here are my thoughts about the hand.

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