Playing "weak" hands

[TightIsRight]

In his December 31 Card Player article, Daniel Negreanu writes:

"With the blinds now at $1,000-$2,000 with a $300 ante, I raised to $5,000 from first position with the 7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. I know, I know, the books tell you to fold those hands. I guess I should read one of them, eventually. Or, better yet, when I write one, I’ll explain to you why these types of hands do very well in deep-stack tournaments. Guys like Alan Goehring, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, and the like don’t play these hands because they are bored; they play them because there is method to the madness."

Playing hands like this makes you hard to read, and adds a lot of deception to your game. Outside of that, it seems to me that you're always getting in there with the worst of it (esp. in this case where he is raising UTG). Can someone explain the "method to the madness"?

[TightIsRight]

BUMP

Everything I've ever learned is that you can't win w/ low starting hand requirements, but some of the top players are loose to a certain extent. Obviously, they play well after the flop, but how can some players get away w/ being in so many hands and still being so successful?

[Myst]

Because they know how to push their crap hands in certain situations.

[cpk]

They also know when to get the hell out of Dodge.

[betgo]

He probably would rather raise with 74s than with A6o with deep money. A6o is a big trouble hand easily dominated.

This kind of raise could be mainly an attempt to steal the blinds.

Obviously he is hoping for a straight or flush. With trips or two pair, no one would suspect he had that hand as the preflop raiser. He could also be ahead on a low flop with a low pair.

Of course if an ace or king hits, he is going tofire an the pot representing top pair top kicker. If there is a low flop he doesn't connect with, he will represent an overpair.

Playing this way makes it very difficult to put him on a hand. He may also get more action when he raises with strong hands. If people think his UTG raise with KK or AK may be 74s, they may be more willing to come over the top.

[Jim T]

IMHO, reading the other players is a huge part of DN's game. If he's able to tell when his opponents in any particular hand are weak and so can be reasonably confident that he knows when he can push them out of a pot without a showdown, then he why shouldn't he get involved in a lot of pots with less than premium cards?