Let’s see what happens when one of your opponents holds an unimpressive Q9s and one has a pocket pair of twos. Now, let’s assume that your opponents have the very worst types of hands that might actually want to see a flop. So, you see, not only are you losing money in each hand on average, but the other two players are actually making out by your very presence in the hand. With three players involved you would like to be able to win at least 33.3% of the time just to roughly break even. The two random hands are each going to win almost 40% of the time, with a small percentage of showdowns going to various ties.

With three players seeing the flop, two random hands and yours, the odds of your 72o winning the showdown are only about 18% - that’s worse than 4 to 1 against. Even if your opponents have not looked at their hole cards and the cards can be considered completely random starting hands, you are still at a decided disadvantage. That won’t take long you’re just not going to be inclined to put your chips at risk very often with this “peach” unless you are a masochist (or a sadist who wants to lay down the hammer on his opponents in grand fashion).įirst, let’s assume that we are at a full table with an average of three players seeing each flop. Then we’ll talk about how and when to play the hand.

I’m going to show you some race odds statistics to illustrate how the hand holds up against random and specific hands. That means it has almost no chance of making a straight (none if using both hole cards), and its high card value is remarkably low. The fact of the matter is that 72o is the lowest valued hand that is separated by at least four other card ranks. You don’t have to be exactly “math savvy” to understand why 72o is such a miserable starting hand. If you’ve read any of my starting hand analyses or strategy articles, you’ve likely caught onto the fact that I am a very mathematically-based player. We’re gonna get just a bit more specific. Well, the short answer is that it’s a complete stinker. Any player who’s been around the block at all has heard that the starting hand seven-two offsuit is the worst hand in NLH poker.īut with all the bad hands that you see in any session of Holdem, why does this one stand out as the ultimate pile of junk?

What are the worst hands in poker