Texas Hold 'Em: Subtle Hands
Like straightforward hands, Subtle Hands in relation to Texas Hold ‘Em can mean a few different things.
- To begin, it’s a play style. Subtle hand players give out tells that aren’t overly obvious to observant players. Sure, there are blatant tells like a smile, a wide-eyed look, or even a shout out that’s punctuated with hand pumping action by novice players (YES!!! FOUR ACES!!! COME TO DADDY!!! Hey… wait a minute… what do you mean you’re all folding???”)
However, most poker players learn to hide their body language or at least they think they do. These are the players that give out subtle clues that we need to watch out for.
So what kinds of clues can we look for in subtle hands? Someone playing subtle hands will try to make a small change in his or her playing style without drawing attention. Lets say, Diamond Jim wants to maximize his winnings during a round because he has a great hand. He has a flush and after reading the other players, thinks they won’t be able to beat him. He’s going to raise the bet “just a little bit” to get the others to put more money into the pot. He’s not aggressively maximizing his bet so his action isn’t obvious to most players. He’s being cautious so other players aren’t scared into folding. With this strategy, he’s not concerned about winning as much as he wants to make this a profitable pot. He's making them “pay to stay” but not making it so expensive that it’s better for them to fold. He’s playing a subtle hand to find that sweet spot between profit and spooking the game away.
- Secondly, subtle hands can refer to the hands themselves. This is when a winning hand is not completely obvious – someone having pocket aces, where the board reads A,K,K,4,2 has a very powerful full house. Now, we knew everyone had a pair of kings to work with, but pulling out the three aces as well makes this hand almost unbeatable.
Another example is someone who uses both hole cards to procure a straight. A board of 3,6,7,J,K doesn’t seem very helpful, but someone with a 4,5 in the hole stands to win big. That’s a subtle hand – it’s not obvious what the winner will have.
So there you have it – a play style, and the hands themselves. Now go arm yourself with this information and subtly go out there and win big!
