Speculative Hands
“Speculative hands” are hands that likely will need to improve to win but have enough of a chance of winning that they are profitable hands if you’re getting 4-1 or so on a call before the flop.
Generally these are hands you’ll be playing when four to six players see the flop.
Again, exactly how many callers you’ll need depends on how poorly and how loosely they play after the flop.
An example of a speculative hand is a hand like 7 
6 .
This hand is certainly not going to be the best hand before the flop, but its chances of flopping the best draw are good.
A good draw with this hand is likely to get plenty of action at good betting odds on the flop.
Without the right flop, you won’t be taking speculative hands past the flop.
That’s going to be most of the time. But when you do hit a good flop, like A 6 
5 or 8 5 3 
then you’ll want to play your draw very aggressively (I talk about that more later on).
Because you’ll be folding on most flops, you don’t want to call many raises before the flop with these hands.
Again the exception would be if you have more than just a few callers, and the callers are players who tend to be too loose and too willing to call raises after the flop.
Gambling Hands
“Gambling hands” are long-shot hands that do have some chance of hitting a flop that leads to a big pot.
These hands, however, are sufficient long shots that you need to get very long odds on a call before the flop, something like 6-1 or better.
Generally these are hands you’ll be playing when five or more players see the flop.
Because of dead money from the blinds, it’s often the case that you only need five players to get 6-1 on your money.
A lot of unsuited hands are included in this group. This goes against few opponents.
In tight games it’s true that high-card value is the predominant consideration in hand value and that flush potential only becomes important as a secondary feature.
In typical, loose, or very loose games, flush potential is almost always of primary importance.
Hands without flush potential are generally only worth playing if you get very good odds on the pre-flop betting round to compensate for the lack of potential of the hands.
Suited hands profit from extra callers; unsuited hands often need the extra callers to get the odds they need to be worth playing at all.
An example of a gambling hand is A 9 . This hand doesn’t really have a lot of ways to win.
It’s not a bad hand, just not a hand that often wins a big pot.
The 9 is a weak kicker to the Ace, and you don’t want to call any raises before the flop with this hand.
If the pot is unraised and there are many loose callers, however, the 9 may actually be the best kicker if another player also has an Ace.
Play these hands carefully, and don’t put a lot of money in the pot before the flop.
Pick the Right Table / Picking a Seat / Theories of Poker / Betting Theory: The Odds
A Theory of Starting Hand Value
A Theory of Flop Play: Counting Outs and Evaluating Draws
The Dynamics of Game Conditions / Table Image / Player Stereotypes
Women and Poker / Spread-Limit Games / Double Bet on the End Games / Kill Games
Short-handed Games / Tournaments / No-limit and Pot-Limit Poker
