HAND 4 K – Q

I don’t know what it is about this hand, maybe it’s the two high paint cards that attract players but K-Q is a very dangerous hand to play in any Texas Holdem game. This is a marginal hand at best to call raises with in limit hold’em let alone no-limit. It’s OK to be aggressive with this hand, for instance if it has been folded around to you in the cut-off, then raising is fine here.

But if you persist in calling raises with this type of hand then you are going to be placing yourself into some very tough situations where you are going to have to make some big decisions .Calling a raise with this hand basically sets you up to be dominated by other players hands like A-K and A-Q. Big Slick is a very common raising hand and you can imagine the potential trouble a player can get themselves in when they call a raise with the K-Q and the flop comes K-7-2 and they are unaware that an A-K is out there.

So don’t be blinded by the fact that your poker hand looks pretty because even if it is suited, it is not strong enough to call most raises from solid players.

HAND 5 K – K

It is often said that the hallmark of a very good no-limit poker tournament player is having the ability to lay down the “two cowboys” and especially early in the tournament. All of the great players have made this play from time to time and it can be a tournament saver. But I am not just talking about the perils of running into aces that makes this hand troublesome. I am talking about getting “married” to the hand when you have the big overpair on the flop similar to when you have aces.

Let’s say you raised before the flop from early position with the kings and got two callers. The flop came 10-6-2 rainbow and one of the callers who was in the big blind checks. You bet the pot on the flop and the guy in the big blind check-raises all-in with a sizeable stack.

This puts you to a very serious test but the action indicates that you are beaten although a call can be justified if you really know your man. On a ragged rainbow board like this then a set is a real possibility and many players bust out of a poker tournament by not being able to release a big pair after the flop and they are up against someone else’s flopped set. This is especially the case if your opponent is the no frills solid type.

But are you really going to risk your entire poker tournament in this situation hoping that your opponent is bluffing or making a play with a hand like A-10, because if you are then good luck!

HAND 6 J – J

The two “hooks” are definitely a hand that I see overplayed quite often in No-Limit Hold’em and especially pre-flop. Players just cannot seem to figure out if they should be aggressive or passive with this hand pre-flop. If you are playing in a tournament and a solid player has raised before the flop then taking a bullish stance and playing aggressively can get you into an awful lot of trouble with this hand.

Yet this is what I observe numerous players do time and time again. There is absolutely nothing wrong with just calling a raise pre-flop with the jacks. Just think how much flexibility that play gives you. Firstly, you are not committing yourself because you may just be up against a higher pair.

If the flop comes something like A-K-5 then laying the jacks down is very easy in this situation and you have preserved a large percentage of your stack. The flexibility comes because your call has basically told your opponent nothing about the content of your hand because you have merely responded to their raise. If the flop came something like 9-8-3 and your opponent has A-K or A-Q then they are not going to be feeling as confident in this situation and especially when you have position on them.

But many players think that the hand is too good to fold which it obviously is (unless you really know your man) but they panic and overplay the hand. Many a time they end up in a race against two over cards or being a big dog to a premium pocket pair and wonder why they happen to be walking out of the poker tournament door!

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.