Fri, 01/07/2011 – 20:26 – PokerPages Staff
When learning to play Hold’em, the beginner poker player must tackle the basic poker rules, but success in the Hold’em game goes beyond those rules. There are a multitude of nuances of the game that a beginner is mired in from the outset. These subtleties can be very troubling for the beginner, as well as some advanced players.
Most beginners believe that any two face cards constitute a premium hand. The truth, however, is that some two face card hands are not premium starting hands, but rather more of a starting point for which the player must regard with caution. K-J is such a hand.
K-J appears to be a premium starting hand, but it simply is not. From the beginning of the hand, K-J is significantly behind the most likely starting hands of the other players. K-J is dominated by A-A, A-K, A-J, K-K and K-Q. In fact, K-J only dominates K-T, Q-J, Q-T and random hands.
With that said, playing K-J is likely to get you into trouble. Since you will be behind from the beginning, by playing K-J you will, more often than not, likely lose a large chunk of change. In situations where your K-J dominates, you will win, but the pots will be small.
So what do you do with K-J? If you play K-J, remember it is a marginal hand, at best. Play from late position and if you don’t hit big on the flop, fold.
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