A Free Online Poker Guide To Playing AA And KK Preflop

Regardless of whether you play entry level online for free poker domino or high stakes Vegas A-A and K-K would be the top two hands preflop that will get your heart thumping with excitement every (rare) time they appear.

When you might have AA or KK the chances of a reduced pair winning pre-river are simply about 20% with unpaired hands being even lower. With K-K, an A-X (Ace with any card) features a 25% to 30% probability of winning, and also this is generally only if they hit the Ace.

When you've got AA or KK you hear that voice saying "raise, raise, raise!" Yes, raise heavily it lets you know, in the end the only hands happy to contact us is going to be ones like AK and AQ, plus a heavy raise will scare off the suited connectors that could be capable of crack us later when they hit straights or flushes.

So whatever you do is raise, especially from your late position, and reraise any raises. Then your hope, if you reraise, is that your opponents are intending to reraise again using a weaker hand that they can think could be the favorite, like for example A-K or A-Q, which means you can set them all-in, or move all-in yourself.

But occasionally its smart being more subtle than simply doing the raise and reraise thing. An example is: Suppose you've got A-A at the begining of position, and you also raise. All the rest fold. How many times do you think you're frustrated whenever you raise or move all-in with those big pairs preflop just to bait no customers?

So in early position, if that is what you intend to do - in the event you want to catch them spilling many of their chips into your stack preflop, then just call, then wish - wish! - that someone raises after you to help you reraise. If they fold, no less than you might have obtained more chips than in the event you raised immediately and you also scared them off. If they call, that's beyond preflop play already...

But this "beyond preflop play" is very significant, in that there is a big difference between A-A and K-K. Usually you have to be ready to move all-in preflop more often with K-K than A-A. Why?

Because if you've got A-A along with the flop comes, say, Q-7-3 or K-9-5, those happy to square with you happen to be people that have, like, A-Q, K-Q or K-J.

They are willing to feed their chips to you using these hands, and you can call their big bets or all-ins.

Your A-A is still the best hand, as they definitely think their large (big but not big enough) pair is strong, which hand's already an important underdog. A-A is useful for trapping and for speeding.

You can move all-in by it preflop, needless to say, but as above it is possible to trap with it in the event you feel enjoy it.

But if you might have K-K, the flop might fall A-7-2, K-K, it doesn't matter how golden, has become drawing almost dead. There are two Kings left, and anyone who could possibly be there along may bet large as they comes with an Ace. (Is he likely to bet using a single Seven?)

So you've got to fold your K-K, it doesn't matter how hard it is for you to get so great a hand and then banish it a few moments later. Or just call, call, call.

So, preflop, you might have to play K-K more strongly than you would play your A-A. Ideally, in case you move all-in with K-K, an A-X will contact you, or possibly a small pocket pair and also you'll be an approximately 75-25 favorite. (You're not likely to get called with K-X or Q-X as they are less than strong enough for calling all-ins.)

If you will get called with A-X, they still have to catch the Ace. They're the people using risk, instead of you. If you play K-K slowly, and they also ride their A-X along about the Flop, plus they caught the Ace, it's a thousandfold distinctive from having to catch it. They have no risks to take.

There may be times its keep is A-A versus K-K, but these times are rare. And if you're the main one while using K-K, you could possibly even fold it.

Say both of you inside a preflop hand will be the chip leaders in a very tournament, so you reraise his early-position raise, then out of the blue he pushes you all-in! You might put him on A-A, so you fold, very, very smartly and sickly. Or he's a new player whom you know which will not raise that LARGE a quantity unless he has A-A. But these times are rare, remember.

So, excepting one impressive considerations that needs to be remembered using the K-K, playing A-A and K-K preflop is simply almost identical.