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Like many poker players, I have a favorite “junk” hand: Deuce-four. How it first came to my attention isn’t important here, but I’ve been playing it aggressively for years, with sometimes spectacular results.

I’m well aware that the standard, nearly universal poker advice is to throw in the muck at the earliest opportunity, under almost all circumstances. Can that advice and my contrary practice be reconciled? Let’s look at the pros and cons of having a favorite junk hand — one that you play in all sorts of situations that strategy books would condemn.

First, let’s clarify terms. Despite the headline, there’s no such thing as a “lucky” hand for anybody. To believe that a junk hand wins more often for you than it statistically should requires distorted memory, or even flat-out magical thinking.

My name is Fintan Hand and I'm an Irish, 30 year old professional poker player, sponsored by Pokerstars. My accomplishments include - 1. I'm the only Fintan Hand in the world - 2. Winning a Pokerstars SCOOP event in May 2020. I once correctly pronounced my 'TH' sound. The field of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Lucky Hearts Poker Open is down to just seven. The winner will be crowned Tuesday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, home of the. Lucky Nugget’s collection of award-winning online casino games also includes the same games you can play on the floors of the classiest casinos. Play them at your convenience. You can find the worldwide favourite of online Blackjack, at the heart of which is the famous battle against the dealer for 21 winning points. You may have heard that Wild Bill Hickock was shot during a poker game when he had two pairs in his hand. That unlucky hand contained aces and eights - now often called the 'dead man's hand.'

I use the term because when I have to show my cards to win the pot, telling opponents that is my “lucky hand” is the quickest explanation for why I was playing it, and one that is readily accepted at poker tables. If saying that makes them believe that there actually are lucky hands, or that I’m dumb enough to believe that there are, so much the better.

The real reasons that I play it — and the reasons that you might want to consider adopting your own “lucky hand” — are these:

1. It’s fun

It’s great to crack somebody’s aces by flopping a set of kings. But it’s nowhere near as much fun as playing something they never see coming, and can barely believe even when they do see it.

I have a friend who devotes much of his poker blog to how he beats opponents’ biggest hands with complete junk, and the outraged, fuming reactions that doing so provokes, especially among the nits of the poker world. He favors -offsuit, and calls it “The Spanish Inquisition.” Then, when claiming a pot he had no business being in, he gets to show it and say, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

Come on — if you don’t agree that that’s fun, you’re not human.

2. It ups your bluffing frequency

Most regular low-stakes players don’t play aggressively enough, including not bluffing enough. Junk hands rarely make a hand strong enough to play for value, so committing to playing one of them is mostly a commitment to bluff at random times.

This will often be profitable in and of itself, especially if you are a tight-aggressive player at baseline. But it’s also excellent practice. It will help teach you that in many poker situations, the cards you’re holding simply don’t matter much. That’s a valuable piece of experiential knowledge.

3. You can win monster pots

It’s a general truism of poker that your richest profits will tend to come when your actual holding is outside of the range that any opponent will put you on, so that they are caught completely off-guard.

Unless you play a lot of junk hands, so that opponents know you’re an “any two cards” kind of player, that will almost always describe a situation such as flopping , with in the hole. It’s then child’s play to take the entire stack of the guy who has hit his set of aces, and thinks he’s home free.

4. If others know your “lucky” hand, it scares them

For a while, I played online poker under the screen name, “Dr. Flush.” Amusingly, this caused people in chat to speculate that I must be a plumber, or maybe a urologist. (I’m neither.)

But what was most interesting was how much more often my bluffs worked when the board had three of a suit. I didn’t tabulate results compared to when I’ve used other screen names, but I had a strong subjective sense that the name was priming players to believe that I chased a lot of flush draws, and therefore was more likely actually to have it.

Similarly, when I play in home games and the board has anything for which would make a killer hand, I have a high rate of success in representing that’s what I actually have. It works because the others all know that’s my favorite hand, and that I play it every time it’s dealt. They can’t help thinking, as a result, that I may have hit big — whereas with any other player, they would dismiss the possibility that those are somebody’s down cards.

You can achieve the same effect in a live cash game among strangers by winning a pot, showing your cards, and announcing that’s your lucky hand and you play it every time. They’ll remember.

But in poker, as in life, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Adopting a junk hand has a dark side, too:

1. You can fall victim to your own propaganda

Tell a lie often enough, and you might start to believe it. Here, telling people over and over again that some junky starting hand is super lucky for you can infiltrate your own cranium, such that you begin to think — consciously or subconsciously — that it really is, and act accordingly.

You might also become so committed to playing your as if it were that you plow ahead, ignoring signs that somebody is going to be calling your bluff this time.

2. They’re trouble

Sure, once in a great while will clobber when the flop comes . But if that third card is anything other than the deuce, you’re the one in deep doo-doo, even while you think you’re smelling like roses.

3. Drip, drip, drip

Most poker losses aren’t the whole-stack-at-a-time kind, but rather the slow, unnecessary leak of a few chips here and there. Most of the time, junk hands will lose you money — which is kind of why they’re widely considered “junk.” It will be hard for you to be certain that the rare big pots you win outweigh all the little ones that you lose with your pet hand.

4. Slippery slope

As I argued above, incorporating a junk hand into your range may well be good for your bottom line, if you’re judicious about it. But it’s awfully easy for rationalization to get to you. If a little is good, more is better, right? If you’re playing , you can be tempted to add in , and then and , and so on. This corrosive tendency will be particularly pronounced when you’re tired and/or stuck — and it can cost you a fortune.

So if you don’t already have a favored “lucky” hand, consider picking one. It can be a potent poker weapon. But be careful: it’s a weapon that can easily turn on you.

(In case you’re interested, I’ve chronicled a number of stories regarding the Mighty Deuce-Four here.)

Robert Woolley lives in Asheville, NC. He spent several years in Las Vegas and chronicled his life in poker on the “Poker Grump” blog.

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Table Of Contents

After nearly a year of hiatus, the World Poker Tour has returned to the live felt, and it returned in force with 1,573 entries in its Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 Main Event at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida.

An unlikely champion emerged in satellite winner Ilyas Muradi. A player with minimal live cashes on record, Muradi managed to navigate to three-handed play, where he battled Ronnie Bardah and Robel Andemichael.

There, the remaining players came to a deal, one that saw each player secure a minimum of $545,500, with Muradi taking $580,000 as the chip leader. They then played for the remaining $40,000, which includes a WPT Tournament of Champions seat valued at $15K, which also went to Muradi.

'This is amazing, it's making me want to cry,' he said afterward.

Final Table Results

_{*reflects final table deal}

The swell of entries allow the event to rocket past its $1 million guarantee to a laughable degree as more than $5 million went into the prize pool. Some of the players who cashed among the 197 paid places were Sam Panzica, Kevin Eyster, Joe McKeehen,recent WSOP runner-upJoseph Hebert, Aaron Mermelstein and Justin Liberto.

One major storyline picking up steam late was Darren Elias' chase for an unprecedented fifth WPT title — he's already the record holder with four. However, he lost a monster flip to fellow WPT champ Andy Hwang when jacks didn't hold against ace-queen to bust in 10th, according to the venue's live updates.

Muradi was able to surpass Hwang just before the final table, though, when he got pocket kings in versus the queens of Albert Barney Jr. Barney Jr. flopped a queen but a king on the river saved the day for Muradi and gave him the chip lead at the final table.

Bardah Has Early Success

A deep-stacked, lengthy final table was in store for Tuesday's play down to a champion.

Muradi hit a rut early on when he semi-bluffed all in with a combo draw on the turn drawing dead against Andemichael's full house.

In the mean time, while plenty of big pots were played, nobody went bust for awhile until Hwang, who had sunk to the short stack, couldn't improve with ace-king against pocket sevens of Francis Margaglione.

Then, former 'Survivor' contestant Bardah woke up with queens following an open by Jesse Lonis and a shove of 22 blinds by Philip Shing. He called and faded Shing's to bust him in sixth.

Bardah kept it up when he three-bet with kings and called a four-bet shove from Lonis, who had tens and didn't improve.

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Muradi's Big Hold

Bardah and Muradi then played a three-bet pot that would prove a key turning point. At 125,000/250,000, Bardah opened for 550,000 first to act and Muradi made it 1.3 million on his left. Bardah peeled and flopped. Bardah checked, Muradi bet 1,550,000 and Bardah shoved for about 7.6 million more. Muradi quickly called.

Muradi:
Bardah:

If Bardah could topple the aces, he'd have more than half of the chips and be in command three-handed. Unfortunately for him, it ran , to flip their positions and give Muradi north of 20 million.

Former leader Margaglione then slid down to the short stack and busted to Bardah raise-calling for about 11 blinds with and failing to best .

Deal Made, Trophy Won

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Play continued for a bit until break, when a deal was reached that saw each player lock up half a million. With plenty still on the line, though, nobody was ready to just gamble all in and call it a tournament.

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Andemichael went from shortest stack to chip leader, while Bardah slipped down to 13 big blinds when he three-bet shoved and ran into the of Andemichael. He couldn't overcome the dominating hand, leaving Andemichael heads up with Muradi and stacks close to even.

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Andemichael widened his lead at first, but Muradi brought it back and retook the lead when he got a river bet paid after turning aces up and rivering a full house.

The battle stretched well past midnight until Muradi finally won a flip for all the chips with pocket fours holding against .

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