Jackpot Hour In Casino

In texas holdem, certain hands always seem to get players into big trouble if they aren't completely sure about what they are doing. I'm talking about hands that aren't really hands but seem big.

I am mainly talking about unmatched face cards just as queen/jack, king/queen, and especially ace/king. It looks like a big hand but it isn't. Not really. And here's why.

These types of hand, such as ace/king are not made hands. What I mean is, you don't have anything. You'll lose to a pair of deuces. What you have is a potentially powerful drawing hand, that's it. But you have nothing to start with. When you play ace/king properly, you can get other big hands to lay down and you can steal blinds. But you need to play them carefully and avoid chasing pots.

Look, if you're holding ace/king, you're never better than a coin flip. Yes, if you hit a king or ace on the flop, you have a very solid top pair. But what if another player is holding pocket kinds or pocket aces. They've flopped a set and you are going to be in big trouble if you play out the hand.

If you have a lot of chips, stay away from putting many of them into the pot preflop. If you understand your opponents and their tendencies, you'll know whether you can get big pocket pairs, such as jack/jack to lay down their hands if you bet into them the right way.

That means you'll need to play them aggressively. But this is a risk you don't want to take when you have a lot of hands. However, when you are short stacked, ace/king becomes a much better drawing hand and something you'll want to play aggressively to make other players lay down.

If you have a big stack, you probably don't want to do more than call to see the flop. From time to time you may want to hit a standard raise but if another player comes back over the top of you, you'll probably want to get out while you can and conserve your big stack.

Remember, hands like ace/king have potential but they aren't anything by themselves. And the size of your stack and the blinds, as well as the players around you, will determine how you should play these cards. Circumstance will dictate how you play these cards.