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How to play A-A and K-K before the Flop?

  • Published Date March 20, 2020
  • By Admin

In the game of Texas Hold’em, A-A and K-K are the premium hands that you can get before the flop. The chances of A-A to be dealt with is less than 0.5%. So, it does not occur as frequently as we wish. Whereas, the chances of K-K to be dealt is 0.9%.  If you play these hands correctly, you can make a huge profit. Yet, many players do not fundamentally understand the ideal way to play these strongest hands.

In this article, I am going to explain how to play these monster hands optimally to maximize your profit, just like the professional players.

How to play A-A?

More than any other starting hand in Texas Holdem Poker, to have a solid strategy on how to play A-A and when to fold is a good idea (yes, occasionally depending upon the situation, you should be doing this).

Pocket Aces in the game of Texas Hold’em is the best hand out of a possible 169 starting hand. Unfortunately, it is where many players make their first mistake. Although, this is the best hand, if not played correctly, you might not be able to make the best out of the perfect situation. So, it is vital to play it with caution, otherwise, you might lose a big pot.

The best way to play A-A is to raise and reraise before the flop. Even after the flop, you must play this hand very aggressively as well. With these hands, you should often be willing to get all of your chips in the pot.

In any Poker game, when you get A-A, your default strategy should be to raise or re-raise on the pre-flop. If you are new to the table and you don’t know anyone, then you should 100% use this strategy.

You might be wondering why not slow play with your A-A?

Well, Pocket Aces are the type of hand which should not be played against multiple opponents. Instead, the ideal situation should be to play heads up on the flop. Dragging at the early stage of the game is a dangerous approach to employ. In fact, you should strictly avoid this. If you do limp, you may have to face multiple opponents on the flop. At this point, you have to be ready to fold your hand to any action until you are able to hit your set.

As A-A is the best starting hand and the only way you will win a big pot is by building it yourself. That is particularly the case at the lower stakes. Many players fail to recall that most of the opponents at the lower limits are extremely passive players. This means that they will not raise or call until they happen to have a monster hand, which is improbable.

Thus, the only way you can win a large pot against them is by putting plenty of chips in the middle yourself. If your opponents do not have anything, well then, there is nothing that you can do, they would have folded anyhow.

But if your opponents have any hand they prefer (or piece of the board), then they will probably call. When you have A-A, this is exactly what you want them to do.

Now with all that said, yes sometimes a situation comes where you have to slow playing aces. That mostly depends on the history you have with a particular opponent. If you play against specific opponents often, then mixing things up from time to time is a good idea to keep them guessing.

How to play K-K?

One of the best things to increase your chances of winning at the Poker table is to know how to play K-K correctly and optimize your value each time whenever this hand is dealt. This is because K-K is the second-best starting hand and the most profitable hand in the long run, right after A-A.

The correct way to play K-K is to raise and re-raise before the flop. You must play K-K very aggressively after the flop as you did with Aces and be ready to get all your chips in the pot when you have Pocket Kings. It is really essential not to screw around with this hand at the low stakes table.

Whether you are playing in a small stakes poker tournaments or cash game, you can constantly come across bad players who prefer to play with a wide range of hands. Even the so-called tight players will often face difficulty to fold to a 3Bet.

Always raise with you K-K if you are the first player to enter the pot. Don’t make a mistake to limp-in. If your opponents have raised it already, then re-raise your Pocket Kings.

If you get an opportunity to go all-in preflop with K-K, then you should 100% go in. This is a golden chance for you. Although we all tend to clearly remember that one time (or even three times in a row) when your opponent had aces, and you got it all in, the basic math tells us this is an extremely rare event.

The probability of running your Kings into Aces are only 4% at a table of 9 players max and 3% at a table of 6 players max. Moreover, these figures don’t even take into consideration all the times, when the opponents go all-in and show with the hands like AK, AQ, QQ, JJ, and TT. Obviously, K-K crushes all these hands.

Hence, now let’s end the discussion here once and for all. You should always go all-in preflop (assuming effective stacks of 100bb) with your K-K.

So, the bottom line is when you have A-A and K-K, the best way to play the majority of the time is by raising or re-raising. If you know how to play them well, then you will likely earn a whopping amount of profit in the long run.

To become an expert is not easy. One needs patience, skills, and discipline to gain mastery. Therefore, you can master this game by playing free online Poker on the Gamentio app and sharpen your skills required to ace the game. What are you now waiting for? Download the app and combine your skill and these strategies to become a pro.

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