Tag Archives: king
Made Hands, Monsters to Mice (Page 1 of 3)
After the flop, much of the strength of your hand depends on the character of the flop. Obviously, if you start with a pair, and make trips, a full house or four of a kind, you have a big hand, these are the Monsters. What is not so obvious is how the strength of your hand changes when you hit a fair hand, but get a flop that may have helped one, or more, of your opponents.
In the rare situation where you have a monster, hope that someone either bets, or catches a card on the turn so they can call your bet. You have an almost unbeatable hand, and the other players are going to be scared off by the flop. Your goal in this situation should be to keep as many players around as possible, and to get as much money in the pot as possible.
With your biggest hands, you may want to slow play and entice someone else into betting. But, in those rare cases when you have the best hand and other players are betting and rising, join in and help to build the pot. After all, it is almost certainly going to be yours. If the board later pairs, and there us any betting, you may be facing a full house.
Two Pair
Flopping top 2 pair when you have 2 different cards in your hand, is a very strong hand. Top and bottom pair is also a very strong hand. Since you will usually be playing premium cards, top 2 pair will often give someone else a straight draw, and/or a flush draw.
As a result, you should not slow play these hands. Your goal is to force players out of the hand, and charge those that stay. While this hand warrants raises and re-raises, lots of action could mean they have a set. If so, or a straight or flush is possible, you could be drawing to only 4 outs.
If the pot has already gotten large, you should call it down. If the pot is not large, or you are positive that the other player has you beaten, with 4 outs you need pot odds of 11:1 to make the call profitable.
When you have 2 pair, and 1 is on the board, your hand is not as strong as the split 2 pair. Another player may already have trips, or a higher 2 pair. If a card higher than your pair hits the board, it could make someone a higher 2 pair. There could also be other draws out that may beat your 2 pair.
This is another situation to play aggressively, to chase players out, win the pot immediately, or at least make it expensive for players to draw. If you are raised, or check raised, on the turn, you may be up against trips. But, by now, the pot has gotten big. You may want to back off and call, but you shouldnt fold unless you are sure you are beaten, or you are facing 3 bets cold.
Top Pair
Top pair, good kicker is a very strong hand. This is 1 reason to treat Big Slick, Ace and King, as a strong hand. With a flop of King, Eight, Three, and 3 different suits you have an excellent hand. The only card higher than the flop pairs your Ace, giving you top 2 pair. There are no flush or straight draws, so you are only worried about Ace, Ace, King, King, or a pair of Eights or Threes in the hole.
Free Online Poker Guide To The Art Of Moving All In
Whether you play free online poker or for big stakes going All-In is just about the most heavy duty poker move of all. Generally you should only consider moving all in if you have a hand that stands a good chance against powerful hands such as A-K and A-Q which are the most common hands played all-in.
This is because these are the hands also most willing to call. Which hands, then, are we willing to put our tournament life on? Pocket pairs spring to mind. So does A-K (or A-Q or even K-Q suited or K-J suited if you are running out of chips)
But someone does it differently. I would like to add that here; player B is an impatient, rowdy player who is familiar to us TV poker fans.
BLINDS 12k/24k
A has Ad-Kd raises 75k
A’s raise is simply standard for A-K suited, though it is slightly stronger (the average preflop raise is about 2.5x the big blind, but this raise is a little more than thrice). But look at B’s move, which might be less standard:
B has 10c-5c moves all-in 544k
What about that: a 10-5? With about 22 big blinds left, which is relatively a short-stack (but not so short), B moves all-in. However with a 10-5? B can wait for slightly better hands than this.
Now let us try to justify the 10-5 in this situation. If B did it with a small pair, he is a slight favourite (about 55-45). If with A-x (with x smaller than a King), he is a significant underdog (about 75-25).
With any 2 cards apart from A or K he much less the underdog (approx. 66-34). So with the win-rate of 10-5 against Ace King (B deciding that A’s hand is Ace King or alike is a gamble; if he is up against Ace Ace then he is a serious underdog at about 85-15) is simply the average of the win rate of a pocket pair against Ace King and the win rate of A-x against A-K, and as such not too nasty.
Moreover, with 10c-5c B has two live cards, compared with A-x, where x is the only live card. Moreover, B may dislike having 22 big blinds dwindle to, say, 15 or 14 later, so he decides to put his heart and soul into this hand. Who is this player, anyway? “I’ve got a 10-5, girls and boys.” You heard that right, the garrulous Mike Matusow! “The Mouth!”
A calls 469k (Pot 1.124m)
Now let us observe how “The Mouth” will fare against all odds.
FLOP: Js-7c-5s
“That’s a Flop!” A Five fell, pairing Matusow!
TURN: Js-7c-5s-8d
RIVER: Js-7c-5s-8d-6d
Moving all-in can end up being one of the most dangerous moments in poker. Even in free online poker it can also be the most thrilling, anyway. The all-in recharged Matusow’s stack to 45 big blinds.
This unconventional play is not exploitable forever, anyway. For Matusow to think A has AK or alike is, quite frankly gambling.
While most players will work a strategy where they will call with pocket pairs I doubt in this case that A will call with anything less than 10-10.
Against A-A or K-K or a higher pair, 10-5 will win only about 15% of the time, and with 10-10 to 5-5, about 25%, and with 4-4 to 2-2, nearly a coin flip.