I see this all the time in the card rooms I play online, people over value suited hands. While it certainly adds benefit to any starting hand when they are suited, things like 9c 3c are practically worthless and should be generally folded¹.

Okay… so why? For a very simple reason… you only have a 15 to 1 (6.4%) chance of making a flush by the river. The odds of flopping a flush is 118 to 1 (0.84%) and flopping a flush draw 8.1 to 1 (10.9%). That’s pretty bad… but let’s say you flop the flush draw, then your odds significantly improve. You’ll have a 1.9 to 1 (35%) chance of making your flush… that’s good enough for most calls according to pot odds. But in a lot of situations, you’ll end up getting beat by someone who has a higher flush.

So do yourself a favor, when you get these type of cards, throw them in the muck where they belong. You’ll end up loosing less in the long run.

Course, as I write this, I got my three of a kind beat by someone holding on to 5h 2h and making the flush on the river. He got really lucky… and because he got lucky, he’ll probably make the same mistake again and again… hopefully, I’ll be playing him next time he makes that mistake, cause I want a chance to take my money back.

1. The only exceptions I can think of are if you are in the small or big blind or if you are going to attempt a steal of the blinds, or perhaps set up a bluff for a later round (a way more advanced topic than this article will allow). [back]

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