KING QUEEN Starting Hand

The Nicknames for this starting hand are “Marriage”, “Royalty” and “Couple”. The King-Queen suited is the 7^th best starting hand in the top list. But also this great starting hand can turn bad quickly after dealt community cards in Texas Holdem.

I played already many King-Queen starting hands, but it is one of the hands I hate. There are many of odds and possibilities at the start but only a few to the end of the hand playing. If there comes both of these cards on the board, there is for sure a hand on the table sitting that will get a straight, if there are 2 of your color cards in the flop there comes an another flush for your opponents or even when the flush comes, there is an ace high flush in the game.

Many poker players over price this hand. If you are betting too much preflop and get a call, you can be sure there is a high ace sitting and playing against your King-Queen starting hand. And if there comes an ace in the flop, what do you want to do with your King-Queen? You only can invest your chips and bet to see if your opponent has the ace. You are unlucky if you are playing against a “donk” or “fish” who both are almost calling or even raising your bet. But if you are playing against really good and experienced poker players, winning the hand depends only on your poker game “table image” and “poker face” in this kind of situation.

There are many poker players who like this starting hand. In effect the suited King-Queen starting hand gives you a good possibility to make a straight or flush, your outs are really great. Even with an ace in the flop!

For me, I am playing this hand every time in a different way, depending on the game, the opponents, the position and the stacks sitting at the table. I can’t say, and I never would teach this to a beginner poker player to raise King-Queen starting hand every single time before flop. 

 

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DONK vs. FISH

In the poker game you find many terms the poker players are using at the table. One of them is for example DONK, comes from Donkey. What does it mean? This is the frustration expression for a player who is playing without thinking, also called a “Bingo player”.

The Donk is playing without position, calls every kind of bet or raise, can’t count his pot odds (if he knows what pot odds are) or even think about the move he made.

The play of a donk is only a stupid action, his betting is:

- unexpected (don’t follow the betting behavior below),    

- risky (he is betting too much or inadequate and risks his stack or the whole game)

- egocentric (he don’t pay attention to what is happening at the table or what his opponents are doing)

A donk is not following the game or the play of the opponents. He is only there to bet and raise and get lucky to win the big pot. He is the worst PLAYER.

Another term is the FISH at the table. This expression is a synonym of DONK. Maybe they have no experience, doesn’t know the winning hands exactly and are playing really almost every hand.

There is no chance to get such players out of the hand. You can be much more experienced player, but against a FISH you can’t play good poker!

For me there is not really a difference between these two players, DONK and FISH. They are playing anything without exact to know what they are doing!

The really worst thing is, the DONK and the FISH doesn’t know they are one!

TABLE POSITION

In a poker game your position at the table is changing by rotating the Dealer button. The position is important for every player but not everyone is playing the position.

Not only your cards and chip stack, but also your position helps you decide about your betting, raising or folding. The best position at the table is the “Dealer”, that means the player with the dealer button has nothing to invest and sees what all other players do before he can decide how he is playing his cards. Preflop, all players at the table (except 2 – small and big blind, already have their chips more or less in) are acting before the dealer position and then the dealer button player already knows how many players are involved in this one hand.

You can use the position to bluff with a raise if nobody was raising or everybody was folding. Also after the flop you can benefit from the “dealer” position, because you are the last to speak.

The other positions at the poker table are called:

SMALL BLIND – is the one after dealer and has already put half of the Big blind in

BIG BLIND – is the second seat after dealer and has to bring the minimum bet

UNDER THE GUN – is the position after the Big blind and is not recommendable to raise this position with any cards, if there is big raise from this position you can be sure it is a big bluff or really one of the best starting hands sitting at the table

CUT OFF – is the position before dealer button, it is not bad if dealer button folds, then you are in the “position of the dealer”

DEALER – the best position at the table, you can choose and vary your game depending on actions of other players before your turn

 

 

ACE KING STARTING HAND

A K starting hand is known also as “Big Slick”, “Anna Kournikova” or "Walking Back To Houston", this is the 4th best starting hand in Texas Hold'em Poker. The odds of being dealt ace king (suited) are 1 in 331. If suited, it is one of the premium hands. If off-suit, it is still a great starting hand.

With AK, you hit at least top pair with top kicker if there is an Ace or a King on the flop which will be a winning hand most of the time. A hand like this is a strong pre flop hand, but quite difficult to play correctly. Pre flop you can play this hand in every position. It is only a question of if you should play slow (just to call) or raising the blinds. You must also observe your opponents play. If there is a big raise before you act or one or more raises behind you, then you have to consider how the raising players have played before this hand… are they playing tight, then there is a possibility they hold a better starting hand… are they playing loose and re-raising you or how have you played your game? If you are a tight player, it is possible they are checking your hand and trying to steal your chips. If you are an active player, they may also have a strong starting hand.

There are many aspects that you must consider if you are playing A and K:
1. Your position
2. Your opponents
3. Your play
4. Your chip stack
5. The part of game if it is a tournament – is it at beginning, middle or late part of the game AK as starting hand really needs to be dealt a good flop!

If you can’t see an ace or a king on the flop you have to get out of this hand after raising your opponents. Otherwise you risk further damage…

Where are the nicknames coming from?  

“Big Slick” - originally was called "Santa Barbara" from the destructive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara. It eventually transformed into "Big Slick", because of the English adjective slick (slippery and appealing) which means ambiguous. A K is a "slippery" hand since it is often misplayed or overplayed and can result in big losses.  

“Anna Kournikova” - nicknamed after the tennis player Anna Kournikova by Vince Van Patton during a commentary of an episode of the WPT because the hand "looks great but never wins".  

"Walking Back To Houston" – used by T.J. Cloutier in his book “Championship No-Limit”, after guys who came up to Dallas to play poker, got busted with Ace-King, and had to walk home.

 

Bad beat and suck out

Anybody who ever played poker has had a bad beat or has experienced suck outs. You start playing with one of the best starting hands and you are thinking “I can’t lose” and then it happens… Your opponent becomes best possible cards on the board and wins the hand. The more cards dealt, the more your favorite hand looks like a losing hand. If you for example have a flush with an ace or full house it is only a small possibility your opponent has a straight flush or quads. Therefore you are statistically right to believe your hand is the best. That’s a bad beat. You are beaten by a “weaker” start hand after the last card was dealt.

Watch this example: BAD BEAT 

 The most of the “calling station” players will play any two cards and rely only on luck. Others fall in love with their start hand and call till the river even though the board has become stronger. They don’t count their outs or pot odds or even think about a possibility that there can be a better flush, straight or more. Then they become lucky and win the hand by a suck out.

Watch this example:  SUCK OUT 

I think the difference between bad beat and suck out is only giving your opponent the possibility to hit his draw. If you give bad pot odds by your betting and lose, it is bad beat, if not and your opponent is calling and wins, it is a suck out.

 

 What is your experience? What is your definition of BAD BEAT and SUCK OUT? Am I right?

Don’t touch my big blind...

You see it all the time on the poker tables. A raise pre flop and big blind calls every time. Once chips are in play the big blind rarely folds his cards. This can be very dangerous but also an easy win of a lot of chips. You can never know what the big blind is playing. He can play two strong cards and he can play any two and win at the end by hitting his draw on the river. There are players who play their big blind every time, thinking only about not losing the blind bet. Some players in big blind even answer with a reraise which means “don’t touch my big blind”. But you can also win lots of big blinds chips, if he is playing this way. He loses not only his big blind bet, he also loses his playing chips very fast and therefore his play/tournament too.

STARTING HAND ACE FOUR

A 4 starting hand also called “Transvestite”or “Blind Man’s Aces”. Called this because you see the first ace, and the 4 looks like another, but it turns out not to be.

Ace Four off suit (A4) pre flop statistics are not so good. In the ranking this hand is placed in the 104^thposition and the probability of being dealt Ace Four off suit is only 0.9 %. It is not recommended to play this hand in any position, except in small or big blind if there is no raise before. But A 4 off suit is better than A3, A2 and A6 off suit and any other ace free off suit hand smaller than K8.

Suited A 4 in opposite belongs to a range of very good starting hands like suited A2, A3, A5, AT, AJ, AQ and AK. These starting hands generate a positive return in the value charts, which analyze the rate of return of each starting hand.

The “Blind Man’s Aces” are not pocket Aces but if they are suited and played correctly you can win a nice pot.