Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
When deciding whether or not to sandbag, it is most important to carefully analyze your five-card hand. For example, suppose your hand is made up of three sixes, a four, and a three. Your opponents' hands must be made up from the remaining forty-seven cards, and the chances that one of your opponents will hold a pair of jacks or better as openers is considerably greater than it would be if you, for instance, held three kings, a queen and a jack. This is due to the fact that each jack, queen, king or ace in your hand has a diminishing effect on each opponent's chances of holding openers.
With the above in mind, we may establish a general principle that the best time to sandbag is when you hold three of a kind or better, when there are five players or more to act after you, and when your hand is composed of low-valued cards.