A lot of players tend to throw away their hands when they don’t catch any cards. Even if you do play quality cards correctly, there is just no way of knowing when you are going to win. You can however, make a killing by playing KQ and making your opponents “play the hand” incorrectly.
Let’s look at some of the basics of this hand in particular. The coin-flip scenarios, or instances when you have the best hand and others do too, but end up losing, incur a small loss. In these cases, your losing hands are relatively small compared to your winning hands.
Coin flip hands in Texas Hold’em are about 53%-57% percent. A “small” hand is 53% or more, depending on what the other card is. 53% can be a good hand, 54% is a monster hand, 55% is an average hand and 56% is a good hand. The hand ranks of cards are ranked the same as in traditional poker.
On the first card (the low card) you have a 12.5% chance to win. The next card (the high card) has a 28.4% chance of winning. Since there are more than twice as many 10s as there are 2s, the odds are about 11:2 or 2:1. This does not sound like much of a hand, but it can be the deciding factor in a big pot.
Once you get two cards, there is about a 51% chance of winning a low hand, and a 49% chance of winning a high hand. Knowing two cards what there is about a 63% chance of winning a low hand is valuable information. With only one card known at the moment, the high hand is slightly better than the low hand.
There are several hands that can be played from this pair. The next card, whether it improves the hand, makes the hand better, or makes the opponents happy, is called theTurn. The cards it replaces areWelcome to the casino.
4-8You almost always play these hands from the button or the cutoff if no one else has made a raise. They tend not to serve as a standard two-card poker hand, and more often than not, they will not improve on the flop. This is especially true with hands like 8-5 and 7-4.
Low pocket pairs in early position are often worth a small bet, otherwise they are worth nothing to you unless someone has raised. In a heads-up match, you should bet the value of your hand to get value for your hand. Low pocket pairs are most valuable in middle or late position.
You should also bet these hands in late position when you have a strong hand from early position, or in blinds where you see few flops.
The problem with pocket pairs in most situations is that you do not like to lay them down. You would rather win by making a small bet and seeing a flop, than lose a big wager by keeping the hand and seeing the wrong flop.
You can also play pocket pairs for a bit of deception. For example, you raise pre-flop with pocket 5’s or 6’s and charge the blinds a small amount. This way you can see the flop for free (Vegas88) and also put the pressure on the other players by giving them the impression that you have a strong hand.
Be aware though, that the look of a pocket pair will often mean opposite meanings to different opponents.
For example, everyone knows what a pocket pair is, but you could be holding three or four off suit. Before you raise the flop, ask the players what they would call in your position. If there is a raise and a re-raise, chances are they have a better hand than you.
The thing to remember with pocket pairs though, is that in a table you will not get a free card if you don’t hit the flop. If you don’t have two cards making a pair, and no flop, you are in trouble.
You may still be able to steal the blinds from the button if no one has raised the flop, but be careful. If one player calls and the other re-raises, the latter will have a better hand than you.
The thing to remember with pocket pairs, especially Aces, is that you want to hit your set. You don’t want to hit your set and not have any more later outs. A good example of a set to the nuts is having a pocket pair and hitting the board on the flop and turn exactly the same with the same cards. Having the Ace and Jack of the same suit is the nuts if not the nuts.
Most times your set is good.