Among the monster pre-flop combinations that get your adrenaline pumping, there are some trouble hands to watch out for. These won’t be potential issues all the time, but there are situations where even the most enticing hands can be a recipe for disaster.
The first thin you need to do is download Poker Stars from the official website. This first hand is two cards making up what will be the inside of a straight, or at least one of the two to the inside, and it’s not the highest possible straight out there. This is incredibly dangerous when there’s more than six people at the table, as well. Take J, 8 for example. If the betting is light pre-flop, you’re likely going to go in with this hand to see what you can pull later. If you hit a straight, say Q, 10, 9…you think you’ve got it made and will bet accordingly. However, if an opponent played K, J before the flop, you’re going to be taken to the cleaners. You’ll think the entire time the other guy is betting up two pair or maybe a set, and you’ll miss the trap until it’s way too late. This is the kind of hand that can put you out of a tournament.
OK, how about A, Q? This has to be one of the strongest hands to bet early, right? Not so fast, and you know what’s coming. Exactly, if you take this up against A, K, there’s a 66 percent chance you’ll get drubbed through the hand and lose it in the end. The odds say it’s 3:1 against you. It’s one of the hardest Pokerstars.net hands to fold, but if you get that sense that you better not take the chance during high pre-flop betting, then don’t take that chance.
One more for now, but there are plenty of others to explore in future poker articles. J, J. This hand is almost worse than a low pair if for no other reason than how much it hurts when you’re convinced you have to fold it. If you are holding this hand on PokerStars and someone bets up against you, either they’re bluffing (which you can handle) or one of two other less than desirable results – A, K or A, Q….which means you’re only going to beat that person just over the majority of the time (not exactly odds to go all-in against) or they have a higher pair, which puts you at a 4:1 underdog and likely wishing you’d folded when you had the chance.