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Hole Cards That Will Cost You Money
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There are a number of starting hands that deserve special mention for the havoc they cause in the lives of poker players. These are hands that seem deceptively strong, luring you into big pots with their seductive possibilities, only to dash your hopes and chips. They are in-between hands, and if we could only drum this fact into our resistant brains we would all be much, much wealthier.
The chief culprit is AQ unsuited, although AQ suited is not far behind. This is the perfect trap hand, where the one being trapped is you. It is a hand that demands a strong raise most of the time, or even worse deludes you into believing you should slow-play it, yet it bleeds money much of the time. In no-limit it is even trickier, because it is very hard to get away from this hand after the flop. If you hit an A on the flop you could still find yourself beaten by AK, but you probably won't accept this fact until it is too late. Your best result is to hit a Q on the flop where the Q is the highest card on the board, but even then the number of times you will face KK or better is disturbing. AQ is a lot stronger than AJ, AT, KQ, and all the other hands that trap players in no-man's land. But when you?re holding AJ you still hear that small voice telling you it isn't the greatest hand, whereas that voice is frequently mute when you hold AQ.
Rookies play hands like KQ, KJ, AT very badly. They limp in from early position, and call early raises in late position. They hardly ever throw the hand away, and hardly ever raise aggressively with these holdings either. Trap hands demand decisiveness, and sooner rather than later. If you want to play the hand play it strong, and if someone comes over the top you can get rid of it. If you are out of position you must throw these hands away. In the long run you will save so much money this way, and this is true in no-limit games and no-limit tournaments as well. Once again, limit games allow for looser play, so there are times when you can limp in with QJ, preferably when it is suited and certainly from late positions only. Remember that there is nothing wrong in raising pre-flop with these hands every now and then, as you will be able to ascertain how strong the hand is in this instance. The main issue with these hands is that when they are up against the true premium hands they are huge underdogs. Let's say you hold AQ against QQ or AA - you now require a suck-out to have any hope. But strangely enough, if you hold 89 suited against AA you have a far better chance of cracking those pocket rockets. The key with trap hands is to know when you are heading for a trap, and to know when you hold the best hand going into the flop, and that requires decisiveness. Those who like to limp in with these hands are destined to lose a lot of money playing poker.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Poker Strategy - Understanding Pot Odds
> The Basics Of Playing Position In Poker
> Basics Of Playing Position
> Basic Online Poker Skills
> Online Poker Strategy - Keep it Simple
> Online Poker Strategy - Bluffing and Deception
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