SCENARIO 31
Now suppose the blinds are $200-$400 with a $25 ante. The pot no limit holdem has $850 in it before anyone acts on his poker hand. You are on the button with:
You have $2400 in chips. Everyone folds except Reckless Rick, sitting
What's Your Move?
A. Limp
B. Fold
C. Raise to $1,200
D. Move all-in
Analysis
Except in a few situations, an A-J isn't a hand that you want to invest a lot of gaming money with. This is one of those few situations-you are short on chips and need to improve your position. Since Rick didn't raise in front of you, his hand is probably weaker than yours. With a normal raise of $1,200-$1,900, you are committed to the pot anyway.
So, just move all in (D) and hope to winning poker the pot right there.
Big connected Cards
How to Play K-Q
If A-J is difficult for even experienced players to play, K-Q is even trickier because there are more chances for you to get into kicker trouble with it. If you hit a queen on flop, you have two queens with a king kicker while an opponent could have queens with an ace kicker. What you are looking for is the flop to come J-10-9, a-J-10, or K-K-Q. With these flops, you would have the nuts - and the nuts is exactly what we want to show down at the end of the hand.
In the early rounds of the tournament, you can limp from up front and from middle position with K-Q when you are playing poker at a table where your opponents aren't doing a lot of pre-flop raising. You can make the normal raise of three to four times the big blind when you are on the button or one seat to the button's immediate right-but only if the blinds are tight players who might fold and give up their blinds holdem poker game.SCENARIO 32
Now suppose you are in the $25 bigs blind with:
Passive Paul raises the pot to $50, action Al calls in middle position, and Tight Ted calls on the button. The small blind folds and now it's your turn to act cash course.
What's Your Move?
A. Fold
B. Raise to $150
C. Call
Analysis
K-Q isn't a hand you want to be calling large raises with. Tight Ted called the small raise but he didn't reraise. He probably wouldn't reraise unless he had a large pair. Most likely, Ted has some kind of pocket pair and is hoping to flop a set, or he may have an A-J, A-Q, or even A-K. Action Al might call with lots of different hands in the high low poker of catching a good flop. Passive Paul doesn't do much raising, but doubling the big blind isn't much of a raise glossary.
Just call © and look at the flop. It doesn't cost you much to try to catch a good one.