Premium Pairs

Regular readers of the World Poker Tour magazine will be aware that I am doing a regular feature on various ways to play certain hands before and after the flop in full table no limit ring games. So far we have looked at how to play pocket pairs starting from small pocket pairs (22-66) to medium pocket pairs (77-99) and what I consider to be big pocket pairs (TT-QQ). In later issues we will be taking a look at how these hands play from the flop onwards with various different types of flops.

In this issue however, I will be discussing premium pocket pairs and this means AA and KK. I think that much of the trouble that online players especially get themselves into these days is caused by overplaying these two hands and especially from the flop onwards although we will just be looking at pre-flop today.

Early Position

If I am in an early position in a full ring game and it has been folded to me then I will raise with the cowboys and the pocket rockets. I know people who try to get cute by limping in when they know that an aggressive player to their left will raise but I do not like that play at all. I suppose that it all comes down to how you want to play poker. Because I am a very aggressive player by nature then I am constantly trying to pick up whatever pot that I can. This means that I am frequently betting with mediocre and poor hands as well as trash.

So checking good hands does not fit in with my style although I can see merit in limping in and letting other players come into the pot that may not have come in had you raised. But a limp re-raise defines what type of hand that you are holding but another downside is that you may not get the chance to limp re-raise at all as the pot may not get raised. Then you would have to play your hand very carefully as the pot would be multi-way and you would be out of position with a hand that has just been massively weakened by the arrival of three community cards.

What I find happens a lot is that although a raise signals that I have a strong hand, it still has not signalled how strong as yet as I could just as easily be raising with AK,AQ,JJ,TT,99 etc. What happens in some of the tougher games that I play in is that my raise pre-flop gets called quite frequently by some dude who thinks that he can outplay me after the flop after I have missed with my AQ all because they have position….or at least this is what he thinks.

They could also try to put the squeeze on by re-potting me with a marginal hand although this happens more in six handed play than full ring games. If there has been a limper before I have acted then I will still raise as before and also if there has been a raiser before it gets to me. Poker is a highly situational game which has been said numerous times so it is impossible to recreate every possible scenario here and give you a strategy to combat it.

For instance, pocket kings are very difficult to get away from pre-flop if your opponent just happens to be holding pocket rockets. You may have heard numerous stories of top tournament players laying down cowboys in big tournaments and been correct to do so and then be shown aces but a low limit cash game is something else. I have lost count of the number of times that someone has called me in an all in situation with weak hands. They have called with hands like JJ and TT hoping that I had AK or 99 and with AK and AQ because they probably read in some poker book about how strong those hands are. I always find that most of the time, straight forward solid poker is the most effective way to play. Many people get too hung up trying their hardest to come up with fancy plays and in fact there is a name for that and it is called FPS or “fancy play syndrome”.

There are times in poker where there is a need for complexity and there are times in poker where there is a need for deception and to do something different but you have to learn the difference between being deceptive and over doing it and being unnecessarily fancy.

Middle Position

The way that I play aces and kings in middle position is very similar to how I play them in full ring games in early position. Once again if it has been folded around to me then I will certainly not attempt to get cute by limping in or minimum raising. The further around the table you get then the less likely are your opponents to believe that you have a credible hand so what is the point in slowplaying the hand?

As in early position, if there have been limpers or if there has been a raiser then I will re-raise with either hand. One thing that confuses many novice no limit players and especially many who have transferred across from limit hold’em games is the necessary amount that they should raise and re-raise. This is a very involved subject all by itself and far beyond the scope of this article but there are many more similarities between no limit hold’em and pot limit hold’em than there are between no limit hold’em and limit hold’em.

Both no limit and pot limit are classed as big bet poker but one of the primary differences between the two forms is that one offers you the potential to get all in and knowing when is the correct time to do this is a primary skill in no limit play. But most of the time, making pot size raises and re-raises is roughly correct depending on your stack size of course. So in short then, simply raise and re-raise whenever you have a hand that is as strong as AA and KK and if you are up against AA when you have KK then that is just tough luck.

Late Position

Once again if it has been folded around to me in late position then I will open raise. I see people and have heard people talk about limping in here trying to be deceptive but I really do not see the point in that at all. Everybody expects a raise from what is considered a steal position to be done with a less than premium hand so no one will be taking you for a premium pair when you raise from that position anyway.

If you get some smart ass or a strong player on the button or in the blinds who is determined to put this “bully” in his place then they could just re-pot you here or maybe go all in on your lucky days. So simply open raising from late position can be the most deceptive play of all. If there have been limpers then I will obviously raise with both hands but this time I will tend to raise more than pot as I really do not want to play a multi-way hand with both aces and kings. In fact I will raise more with the kings than with the aces because the cowboys are in need of more protection than the aces because you always live in fear of that dreaded ace arriving which seems to come with alarming regularity whenever you seem to be holding kings.

Depending on stack sizes of course then I may simply move in before the flop even if that means overbetting the pot. If your raise or re-raise leaves you with a small amount of money then you may as well scoot it all into the middle there and then.

The Blinds

You will have heard it many times not just in poker books but also on television, magazines, forums etc that no limit hold’em is a game where position is of vital importance. Do we really need to go over this very obvious point one more time. The answer to that is no but I will anyway because so many people seem to ignore position all together so here we go again….position is of vital importance in no limit hold’em! There I have said it now go away and digest it.

All hands play better with good position and that includes aces and kings. Whenever you raise, not just in hold’em but in any form of poker then you are handing a big chunk of information to your opposition. If you raise then you are telling your opponent that you have a good hand at the very least….if they choose to believe you that is. Likewise with a re-raise and a check raise, in fact these two plays indicate a very powerful hand indeed pre-flop.

So what you must factor into the equation if someone comes along for the ride after you have raised or re-raised is that they have a lot of information regarding your hand while the information that you have about their hand is a lot less. It is such a big advantage to not only act last before the flop but on all subsequent betting rounds as well.

If I am in the small blind and it has been folded around to me then I will raise but if the big blind re-raises then I may just call and let him hang himself after taking the lead in the betting. But if there has been a raise before it has got to me and I am in either blind then I will re-raise and overbet the pot. I really do not want to be playing any hand out of position and my opponent folding before the flop is not a bad result at all for me.

Once again depending on my and my opponents stack size then I could simply move all in. This can work well in the big blind in situations where you have been making pick up plays in the past and you think that your opponents have cottoned on to what you are doing. Then when you get aces or kings and several people limp in and you push all in or bet a lot more than the pot from the big blind then they could think that you are trying the same tactic again.

Some people get very upset and agitated by smart ass plays and react badly to them. They almost want to put you in your place and play the table sheriff. The only time that I may consider calling with a premium pair before the flop is if I am in the big blind and I know that another player is making a steal move against me. The player does not have to be in a steal position for me to do this. As long as I know that their range of raising hands is fairly wide then I may elect to let them keep the lead by simply calling. Of course I would never do this if the pot were three handed or more but a premium pair and especially aces are harder to overtake when only heads up. But because of the dreaded ace arriving then I certainly would not make this play with the cowboys just in case they raised with a hand like As-5s and flopped an ace.

Well I hope that this brief look into how I usually play aces and kings before the flop in full no limit ring games has proved instructive and I look forward to seeing you next month where I will be discussing Broadway cards… see you then!