Are you always getting busted with the best hand? Do you hover at average chip stack then get your money in good only to lose to a worse hand? If playing tournament poker was all about the cards in your hand, everyone would be just as good as the next guy. But guess what? It’s not. And if every time you get it in preflop you have the best hand, you’re probably not taking enough risks.

We all know that having the best hand preflop doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to walk away a winner. I just got knocked out of an Everest Poker tournament 5 away from the money shoving with AK over a player who opened with Kd-3d and called me. The three came and, bink, I was out. Now having the best hand there is always desirable. 70% of the time I should win that hand. But let’s look at the other guy.

He’s got a big stack and K-3 in the small blind. I have an average stack in the big blind. His bet wins 100% of the time that I fold. If I have a great hand, he’s getting action. But if I have a decent hand, I’m probably not calling or raising, I’m likely folding, assuming I don’t have a read that he is loose.

The point is, while you shouldn’t be raising with utter crap, you should be raising with a lot more than just premium hands. If you only raise with good hands you’re less likely to get action from alert poker online players. And when you do get action, you’ll still lose a percentage of the time.

If you open your range up a little bit, you might actually get to tell someone of a story where you put a bad beat on opponent, instead of the other way around.