Suited connectors - a starting hand loved by professional-level players and often loathed by their less-skilled peers. Suited connectors can indeed be a player's best friend, but in the same time they can be among his worst enemies too.

It's easy to understand why pros like suited connectors: they can make flushes and straights too. Basically, they're among the best big pot hands. Pocket pairs (especially big pocket pairs) will indeed win lots of pots, but they tend to be smaller ones. Suited connectors win huge pots every time they're hit for a monster, not only because of the straights and flushes that they make, but also because they're extremely hard to read.

Many people realize the enormous potential in this starting hand and start treating it as a made hand, while it's only a drawing hand. That's how people get fried and that's how they manage to turn suited connectors into their worst enemy.

The deal with this starting hand is that it's not as strong as to warrant automatic involvement in the pot every time one picks it up. Straights and flushes do not come about as often as one abusing suited connectors would like to, therefore some people apply the set-mining principle to them: they count on the implied odds to deliver them from the losses incurred while limping and not hitting anything. The problem is that this set-mining mindset doesn't quite work for suited connectors. Those attempting it will lose money in the long-run.

The only way to play suited connectors in a 6-max game is through aggression. Aggression offers the player several ways to win the pot instead of just one. The aggressor can win the pot right away by forcing his opponents to fold. He can also pour on some pressure past the flop through a c-bet which is another option to take down the pot. He will still be able to make his straight or flush and make the best hand winning the pot squarely.

Aggression is a good solution, but nothing in poker is black and white. Just because one is able to secure an edge through it under certain circumstances, it doesn't mean it'll work every time, and the thing with aggression is that when it backfires, it does so in an extremely painful manner. Position is the determining factor in when and how one should use aggression.

Playing suited connectors from early position is not a winning proposition. At best, those who have an extremely solid post flop play can break even, which means that it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The majority of people will simply lose money with it. In order to balance your range, you can turn on the heat from early position with suited connectors, but be aware that the move will likely cost you money.

Of course, how high your suited connectors are is also an influencing factor. You should pretty much toss low suited connectors into the muck even from middle position. As you approach the button, you can add more and more of these starting hands into the mix, playing them aggressively every single time.

A poker prop deal or a poker propping deal will give you an edge regardless of how you play your suited connectors. Sign up for such a deal today and start grabbing those extra dollars right away.