Five-Four suited is a hand with tons of potential, so in this article, I am going to be teaching you the following:
When considering what to do with any hand before the flop, it’s important to factor in your poker table position and the position of your opponents.
Here are the positions that will be referenced in this section:
When you have Five-Four suited in the Hijack or later, you should raise. From earlier positions, you should fold most of the time.
I say “most of the time” because you can mix in raises with this hand at a low frequency, even from early position, to improve your range’s board coverage. Just make sure you don’t raise it every time unless you have a good exploitative reason for doing so (e.g. you’re at a very tight table).
Against open-raises, your strategy with Five-Four suited depends on your position and the position of the raiser.
From the earliest positions in a full-ring game, you should fold Five-Four suited when facing a raise.
When playing from the Cutoff or the Hijack, you should mix between folding and 3-betting with this hand. It helps your 3-betting range by providing board coverage — so you can actually hit low flops sometimes.
When playing from the Button, you should mix between cold-calling and 3-betting. Having ultimate position postflop allows you to loosen up, so you should try to get in there with Five-Four suited.
From the Small Blind, you should always fold this hand against any open raise. This is the opposite of the Button. You will always be out of position postflop, and that really sucks with a speculative hand like Five-Four suited.
When playing from the Big Blind, you should always defend with this hand since you are closing the action and you are entering the pot with a significant discount. You should mix between calling and 3-betting based on the position of the raiser (the earlier the position the raise came from, the less you should 3-bet and vice versa).
Five-Four suited is a good hand to call against 3-bets as it retains its equity well.
This hand plays very easily postflop — you won’t often find yourself in tough spots. You either hit a pair, a draw, or completely whiff. In all of these cases, the specific course of action tends to be simple.
Five-Four suited is a profitable call against a 4-bet for the same reasons that it can call versus a 3-bet.
Note: For all of these tips, I am talking about playing against somewhat strong strategies. If you’re playing against a very tight player, then do yourself a favor and fold more often. Only give action to people who deserve it — and those super tight players don’t deserve it!
Note: Look up how to play any hand in every common preflop situation in a few seconds. Get instant access to extensive preflop charts (for cash games and tournaments) when you join the Upswing Lab training course and community. Lock your seat now!
The Advanced Solver Ranges for cash games — one of six sets of preflop charts in the Upswing Lab.
You’re not going to flop a pair around two-thirds of the time. These tips are for those scenarios.
Backdoor draws make nice bluffing hands because you can continue betting when the turn gives you a draw. Your backdoor flush draws also help balance out your turn barreling range when the gutshot straight draws, open-ended straight draws, or flush draws complete.
To give you an example, say the board is Kh 8c 2c and you have 5h 4h.
This is a great spot to c-bet with a backdoor straight draw, as any 7x, 6x, 3x, Ax, or heart on the turn will give you a draw. You may also hit middle pair and win at show down against a low pocket pair or a 2x.
Suppose the turn is the 3c, giving you a straight draw and completing the obvious flush. If you bet again, your opponent may put you on that flush and fold with a hand like middle pair. If they call with any hand besides a flush, you still have outs to take the lead on the river.
Play your backdoor draws aggressively and thank me later!
In multiway pots when out-of-position, it is a good practice to check whenever you’ve missed the flop. You can even check your entire range (including good hands) on certain flops.
It doesn’t matter if you have a straight draw, a flush draw, or two undercards. The player who called in position usually has a capped but condensed range. This means the likelihood of them holding medium and strong hands is high, making it harder to generate fold equity.
So, start with a check and go from there!
After open-raising from the Small Blind and being called by the Big Blind, you should fire a c-bet on single Broadway flops (regardless of how well you connected with the board).
I’m talking about flops with one card Ten or higher, such as Jd 7c 2s or Kh 8h 3d.
This type of flop benefits the Small Blind greatly, offering a large number of top pairs and stronger hands compared to the Big Blind.
With these factors present, employ a small-sized c-bet strategy to deny equity to the Big Blind’s weak hands.
This is a spot you probably only deal with if you play online (blind vs blind hands are rare live). But if you ever play blind vs blind, this tip should be a money-maker for you.
These tips are for when you flop a pair or better with your low suited connector.
Follow the principle of “small pairs, small pots” when handling middle and bottom pairs. Lean toward playing them conservatively. Aim for a modest showdown and save aggressive moves for when your hand improves to trips or two pair.
For example, say you raise from the Button with 5h 4h and the Big Blind calls. The flop comes Qd 7d 5c.
In this case, checking is better than betting. Betting risks folding out weaker hands and getting called by too many stronger ones. Instead, look for opportunities to extract value with stronger hands.
You should sometimes bet with small pairs, usually in situations that warrant betting your entire range. Read about such exceptions here:
Playing strong hands fast makes more money!
This is especially true when you’re in position because checking prevents you from increasing the pot size on the current street. In contrast, when playing out of position, you still have the option to check-raise, allowing you to significantly increase the pot size right from the flop.
This can have an exponential effect on the final pot size, which can negatively impact your expected value (EV) with strong hands.
Furthermore, letting your opponent catch up is rarely advisable when your they are extremely far behind. Giving them a chance to hit a gutshot when you’re holding a two pair is a sure way to leave money on the table.
One of the main reasons for calling preflop with a hand such as Five-Four suited is to flop a pair and get to showdown. If you find yourself routinely finding reasons to fold pairs on the flop, it is indicative of a large leak in your strategy.
Pairs are great hands to bluff-catch with when you consider that they are beating all of your opponent’s bluffs. Plus, these hands have 5 outs to improve. Sometimes you might even turn trips or two pair and win a big pot!
Playing Five-Four suited requires careful strategy.
Unlike powerhouse hands, this hand’s profit comes from playing it intelligently — choosing the right spots to play aggressively or passively.
Armed with the knowledge I shared in this article, you should be well on your way to playing this hand very well.
Till’ next time, good luck, grinders!
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