How to Play Suited Connectors in Poker

A lot depends in poker on how we play our suited connectors. The following summary will hopefully help you get started.

Don’t be so quick to hop onto your favorite online casinos or visit your local poker establishment without first sharpening your skills at the game. After all, you don’t want to end up going home at the end of the night with an empty wallet. Poker is an incredibly fun and immersive game that requires a lot of strategic thinking and analysis. Every detail that covers playing a hand pre-flop to learning how to navigate a heads-up game on the river is crucial for long-term success. In this article, we are going to go over a very specific kind of hand that you can get in Texas Hold’em: suited connectors.

What are Suited Connectors?

Essentially, suited connectors are any two consecutive cards that are of the same suit. For example, there’s King-Queen of spades, seven-eight of hearts, and ace-two of diamonds. These cards aren’t necessarily strong hands at the start when pitted against pocket pairs. However, they have a lot of potentials, especially when there are multiple players in a pot.

Since they are connectors that leave a higher chance of completing an open-ended straight on the table. Aside from that, since they’re the same suit, it increases the chances of achieving a flush. Now, straight flushes are incredibly rare, but suited connectors are the best possible hole cards to get when you’re aiming for this elusive hand.

Tips for Playing Suited Connectors

1. Draw the Big Stacks When you have suited connectors, you don’t want to scare away the other players with big stacks. In fact, with suited connectors, the more people who get into the pot, the better your odds of winning. So, avoid 3-betting them. If they happen to raise, just call. Aside from that, players with short stocks won’t give you as much room to maneuver in the later betting rounds, so you don’t want to be playing against them as much.
2. Avoid Betting Big Against Calling Stations One of the best ways to win with suited connectors is to get everyone else to fold pre-flop. Yes, you have a strong hand, but you’re still playing behind against a pocket pair. Odds still dictate that you don’t have the strongest hand. So, you should only be playing aggressively against people who are least likely to call you. If you’re betting against a small blind, big blind, or a dealer button position player, they have more incentive to call you pre-flop.
3. Avoid 4-Bets If raises get to a point wherein it’s a four-level bet, you might want to fold. Again, you’re likely to be playing behind. No matter the potential, it’s just not worth the risk to be a part of a 4-bet pre-flop. You just don’t have as many outs as you would like in that position, especially when there are less players involved.

Conclusion

Suited connectors aren’t the strongest hand, but they do offer a lot of potential. It’s all just a matter of playing intelligently and knowing how to read opponents properly.