THERE COULD BE TROUBLE AHEAD!

In poker games the world over whether it be limit or no limit, tournaments or cash games, live play or online, millions of players have major problems with certain types of hands. Although it has to be said that my good friend Jim has a problem with them all.....sorry Jimbo! It is true though that ALL hands have the potential to be trouble if they are played incorrectly!

Quite simply the bad hands play themselves, you simply fold them and no harm done. But as we begin to move up through the starting hands, the more a hand becomes playable the greater potential there is for trouble. When the WPT editor Ian Harris asked me to come up with the six most troublesome hands in Hold’em, he actually presented me with a very tough nut to crack....cheers Ian!

The differences in strategy between limit and no limit play and tournaments and cash games makes this quite difficult to answer. But being as the poker that’s played in the WPT events is No-Limit Texas Hold’em then I will keep it to that form of poker. Following is a list of what I consider to be six of the most misplayed and troublesome hands in the game but this list could easily be three times the size!

HAND   1           A - A

What’s that I can hear, oh it’s all those howls of derision as people are wondering just why I have selected the best pre-flop hand in Hold’em to be on this list. The trouble with the hand known as “American Airlines” is that people just simply fall in love with the hand when they receive it. It is 220-1 against being dealt aces so it presents a welcome site when a player looks at their hole cards to see two shiny aces staring back at them......most players would admit to a quickening of the pulse in this situation.

I on the other hand think “oh god, I really need to be careful here”. Players need to realise that aces are massively weakened when the flop comes if they do not receive any help. I have witnessed countless weak and intermediate players bust out with this hand. They bust out for two major reasons, firstly because their pre-flop play is predictable, for example they only raise with premium hands.

This means savvy opponents can call if the money is deep enough and they more or less know the content of your hand without you knowing theirs. The second reason is that many players simply do not know when they are beat early enough and cannot make a lay down at the correct time. This all boils down to players not being able to read the flop and assess the dangers of certain opponents connecting with that flop.

Imagine for instance that a player raised to three times the big blind with the pocket rockets from early position and got three callers. The flop came JH-10H-8S, this is a highly dangerous flop for a pair of aces especially in early position. There is a potential made straight out there and many players call raises with hands like J-10 tricky players can even call with 10-8 hoping to outplay you later in the hand. This is not to mention the straight and flush draws that are also out there. So beware because even the pro’s can have trouble with the aces so show them some respect and don’t put them on a pedestal.

HAND   2         J - 10 suited 

Some years ago, there was a lot of debate about the relative merits of J-10 suited. This even led to some people claiming that it was the best hand in Hold’em. This is utter rubbish because pocket aces are the best starting hand pre-flop in any form of Hold’em, always have been and always will be! But the J-10 suited certainly does have merit because of it’s flush and straight potential.

What you must try to assess with every hand that you are dealt is “what hand am I actually building here?”. With A-K, you are building top pair top kicker but with J-10 suited, you are building a draw or top pair mediocre kicker or even middle pair. All of these hands are potential banana skins, the flush draw will not be to the nuts and many people misplay draws anyway.

Imagine a scenario where there has been a raise and two callers and our hero calls with the J-10 suited. This is far from being a bad call and especially when the money is deep. But the problem comes when players go astray on the flop because it is much more difficult to play from the flop onwards than it is pre-flop. The flop comes 10-6-2 and the pre-flop raiser fires again, early in a tournament I would lay this down in one second flat. But it’s surprising just how many players see that top pair and feel compelled to get involved.

Of course there are many advanced plays that a good player could make in this situation but a mediocre player is continuing just because they have top pair which is wrong. 

HAND   3            A - K

The hand known as “Big Slick” is perhaps one of the most misplayed and potentially dangerous hands in Hold’em. The old pro’s sometimes refer to this hand as “walking back to Houston”, a nickname that I believe fits the hand far better. The problem with A-K is in many ways a similar problem to the pair of aces discussed earlier in so much as too many players seem just too reticent to let the hand go.

Remember this and remember it well, “Big Slick” is a drawing hand plain and simple. If two solid players who do not mess around have raised and re-raised before it has even got to you then for heavens sake fold if you are early in the tournament and are deep in chips. You are going to be a small favourite at best and are highly likely to be a big dog with that kind of pre-flop action.

I have witnessed players make pre-flop raises with this hand and get called in several spots, miss the flop and try to force a bluff through against numerous opponents......madness!

HAND    4               K - Q

I don’t know what it is about this hand, maybe it’s the two high paint cards that attract players but K-Q is a very dangerous hand to play. This is a marginal hand at best to call raises with in limit hold’em let alone no-limit. It’s OK to be aggressive with this hand, for instance if it has been folded around to you  in the cut-off, then raising is fine here.

But if you persist in calling raises with this type of hand then you are going to be placing yourself into some very tough situations where you are going to have to make some big decisions .Calling a raise with this hand basically sets you up to be dominated by other players hands like A-K and A-Q. Big Slick is a very common raising hand and you can imagine the potential trouble a player can get themselves in when they call a raise with the K-Q and the flop comes K-7-2 and they are unaware that an A-K is out there.

So don’t be blinded by the fact that your hand looks pretty because even if it is suited, it is not strong enough to call most raises from solid players.

HAND     5             K - K

It is often said that the hallmark of a very good no-limit tournament player is having the ability to lay down the “two cowboys” and especially early in the tournament. All of the great players have made this play from time to time and it can be a tournament saver. But I am not just talking about the perils of running into aces that makes this hand troublesome. I am talking about getting “married” to the hand when you have the big overpair on the flop similar to when you have aces.

Let’s say you raised before the flop from early position with the kings and got two callers. The flop came 10-6-2 rainbow and one of the callers who was in the big blind checks. You bet the pot on the flop and the guy in the big blind check-raises all-in with a sizeable stack.

This puts you to a very serious test but the action indicates that you are beaten although a call can be justified if you really know your man. On a ragged rainbow board like this then a set is a real possibility and many players bust out of a tournament by not being able to release a big pair after the flop and they are up against someone else’s flopped set. This is especially the case if your opponent is the no frills solid type.

But are you really going to risk your entire tournament in this situation hoping that your opponent is bluffing or making a play with a hand like A-10, because if you are then good luck!

HAND   6            J - J

The two “hooks” are definitely a hand that I see overplayed quite often in No-Limit Hold’em and especially pre-flop. Players just cannot seem to figure out if they should be aggressive or passive with this hand pre-flop. If you are playing in a tournament and a solid player has raised before the flop then taking a bullish stance and playing aggressively can get you into an awful lot of trouble with this hand.

Yet this is what I observe numerous players do time and time again. There is absolutely nothing wrong with just calling a raise pre-flop with the jacks. Just think how much flexibility that play gives you. Firstly, you are not committing yourself because you may just be up against a higher pair.

If the flop comes something like A-K-5 then laying the jacks down is very easy in this situation and you have preserved a large percentage of your stack. The flexibility comes because your call has basically told your opponent nothing about the content of your hand because you have merely responded to their raise. If the flop came something like 9-8-3 and your opponent has A-K or A-Q then they are not going to be feeling as confident in this situation and especially when you have position on them.

But many players think that the hand is too good to fold which it obviously is (unless you really know your man) but they panic and overplay the hand. Many a time they end up in a race against two over cards or being a big dog to a premium pocket pair and wonder why they happen to be walking out of the tournament door.

So there we have it, six of the most troublesome hands in No-Limit Hold’em but they are far from being the only six. Like I said earlier, any hand in poker is a potential trap door waiting to open if you misplay it.

This article was written for the official magazine of the televised World Poker Tour and has been reproduced here with their kind permission.