American Online Poker

Not all of these hands are playable all the time from all positions. There are several factors that you have to consider when deciding whether to see the flop with your hand. I'm going to run down the list with some general advice about how to play each hand.

1. Pocket Pairs
AA – This is the best hand you can get before the flop. It's the hand that wins more often than any other hand, and it's the hand that wins the most money for you in the long run. Put another way, you could not do better than to have pocket aces every hand for the rest of your poker playing life. If you did, you wouldn't have to read the rest of this (or any other) poker book!

There are several ways to play pocket aces before the flop. Which strategy you choose depends on which goal you want to focus on. If you raise in early position, you will knock out most players, which will increase your chances of winning the hand. Since there will be only a few players in the hand, however, a raise in early position will also decrease the size of the final pot. If you are in late position, and a lot of players have already called, your raise will build a big pot, but the presence of so many players in the pot reduces your chances of winning the hand. It's a trade-off between small pot with a good chance of winning and a large pot with a reduced chance of winning the hand.

If you're in early position with pocket aces, you can also just call and hope that someone behind you will raise. Then you can backraise. You'll build a pot, and, if there are a few players between you and the raiser, you might knock someone out of the hand. This play builds the pot, possibly increases your chances of winning the hand, and gets some dead money in the pot. All of these benefits are very good for you.

KK – You can play pocket kings in almost the same way you play pocket aces, but you have to consider a few more things. Even though the odds are 19.5 to 1 against it, any other player who's raising could have pocket aces. There's also the dreaded ace overcard on the flop, which will come 22.5% of the time. For these reasons, if you're in late position with pocket kings, you might want to just limp in for one bet to see the flop. If you get an ace on the flop, it's easier to throw the hand away, since you have only one bet invested. Plus, if you flop another king or something else you really like, your strength will be very well disguised.

• Another Poker Strategy For Pre-flop Play Part2 (0)
• Starting Poker Hands Part2 (0)
• Starting Poker Hands (0)

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