A few of us play poker online only for the fun of it, several of us like the challenge of turning a bad hand of cards into a good one, for a few of us it is a game of wits and many of us play for thrill of the win. But no matter what player you are, you got to have your wits and sense about you while playing.
Find out three tricky poker hands and how to play those hands to enjoy decent online poker games.
A-A: Pocket Aces are the best poker hand rankings but because of that simple fact they can be tricky to play. You could go the route of trying to limp in and trap players or you could simply make a raise. Either way, you need to do what needed to be done to isolate.
How to Play
Do whatever you have to do to get the pot down to 1-2 other players. Aces win against a random hand around 85% of the time. But that number decreases ridiculously fast the more people are in the pot. The value of aces depreciates greatly in a multi-way pot so play accordingly. Raise them based on table position and not their strength, for instance, raise more in later position.
A-K: Big slick is another hand that a lot of players have trouble playing and a lot of people bust out of tournaments as they overplay the hand.
How to Play
The hand should be a raising hand in most situations. But occasionally you should limp in with this hand just to mix up your play. In early position you ought to obviously raise with it. Same for middle position but in late position and the blinds this is a good spot to rarely limp. Now if you raise with it and your hand misses the flop. You should make a continuation bet (a bet around 1/2 the pot) to try to take the pot right there. If you get called or encounter raising or a lot of fighting back then get away from the hand. Remember, if you don’t hit a pair with A-K all you have is Ace-high. Learn to fold the hand when it misses if you face resistance when you bluff with it.
K-Q: These types of hands get a lot of beginner and intermediate players in trouble because they treat these like premium hands when they really are just high suited connectors and should be played as such. The motive this hand gets players in trouble is because they often enter raised pots against true premium hands like high pocket pairs, A-K and A-Q and when you hit a pair you face kicker issues from facing A-Q or Big Slick. What you really want is to flop a straight or flush draw with this hand.
How to Play
In early position, you can call with this hand if you’d like, the suit variations of this hand particularly strong and many pro poker online players consider them raising hands but off-suit variants should be either called or folded in early position, preferably folded if you’re at a loose table. In middle position K-Q is again a calling hand but if an early position player raises or calls than your fold percentage should increase meaning you will throw it away more.
Have a happy poker time!