Careful player, don’t you go playing too many hands. Such foolishness is for the birds! If you want to be successful at the table, know when to fold.
Allow me to break it down for you:
There are five categories of pre-flop hands…
Great Hands – Ace/Ace, King/King, Queen/Queen, Joker/Joker, Ace/King
These hands should always be played. You should raise and re-raise with them in order to jam the pot…
Good Hands – Jack/Jack, 9/9, Ace/Queen, King/Queen
These hands should be played, generally. They will do best with less people, and so you should raise in order to knock people out. Do not re-raise with them.
Pretty Good Hands – Ace/Jack, King/Jack, Queen/Jack, 10/Jack
Careful player…you need to treat these hands with caution. Don`t go calling a raise with them.
Drawing Hands – 9/8, 8/7, 7/6 suited
95% of the time you will lose with hands like these. But 5% of the time these hands are strong, i.e. if you hit a straight or flush…
Folding Hands – 2/7, 3/9, 4/9, etc.
Never play with these hands…
Flop Hands
Once you hit the flop, you’ll be in one of four situations:
You are winning but have a beatable hand, e.g. you hold A/ A and the board is K Q 7. You will want to jam the pot to knock people out.
You have a best hand – e.g. you have A/A and the board is A Q 7. You’ll win so there is no reason to knock people out too soon. Start raising and re-raising at the turn.
You have the second-best hand – e.g. you have A/J and the flop comes K J 4. In that case, treat the hand as a drawing hand or simply fold.
You have a drawing hand – you have two hearts and there are two on the board. For these hands, you need to use outs and pot odds.
