What makes a hand good?

Sometimes when playing, I get what I think is a good hand. After the hand plays out, after I have the same friend who always complains that I was even in the hand in the first place. The hands I am playing are like....A/8; K/10; Q/10...etc. I don't think they are "outstanding", but worth playing. Is he just mad because he lost, or are these hands I really shouldn't be playing with.

You also have to consider the postion you are in at the table in regards to how you play these hands. You should be more willing to play these if you are the BB or have a late betting position, just to prevent someone from raising you with a better hand. By just limping in with a not so unbelievable hand late in position, you might be able to land some good cards on the board and take even more chips from your opponent.

1st off, the three hand you mention--A-8. K-10, Q-10 etc, are all realy very marginal hands--not to raise with---A-8 is really a nothing hand unless it's suited, same with the others---unless you get lucky and hit the straights---Good starters would be almost any pkt pr--suited A-K down to the 10 an' like that! Those would be good enough to raise 2-3Xs BB and/or call with, depending on if it's a FR-Ring game-MTT or STT! Git it??

I would suggest downloading PokerStove and playing around with to what hands are in the top 5%, 10%, 15% ect. that will give you an idea of what are good hands and what aren't.


P.S. - PokerStove is free

High suited connectors, high pairs, two face cards and A9 up.
Also, up to 2xBB I would play any pair in large table and consider big raise on 2-4 players table.

Nice Question, what makes a hand good.
A hand makes good the Flop, the Turn makes the hand better and the best hand mekes the River, or not. Than makes the playing hand better or not better your opponents. Thats all relativ, a hand with 3,2o can be better than AA or AKs. When you can say which hands where good than you can't loose a game, but why you can't say which hand is good, thats make the play so interisting and till the last card on the board you can say nothing over the hand you hold. And that is good so.

Have a nice time,

Bluestone

Maybe a better Q to ask yourself is, at any stage of a hand, "what can I beat". Say your holding K 10 and the flop is K 10 J, 2pr nice, you bet out and are reraised all in, all you beat is AA, AK, AJ, A10 and weaker, you are beaten by AQ, KK, JJ, 10 10 and 9 Q, always think out the possibilities before clicking that call button to a reraise.
The original Q also depends whether you are male or female,
eg. Women prefer to see a big diamond on their hand, 3rd finger on the left.

Well, like you said, they are definitely worth playing. K 10 and Q 10 are sweet when suited but if not and you don't catch anything, it is best to fold. I rarely play A anything under 10 unless they're suited, I always seem to run into A - better kicker when I play it.

Stack sizes are important, the deeper you are the more hands you can play.

i mean these hands are respectable in some situations...but a lot of beginners think that a lot of these hands are good in a variety of places. with a hand like KJ isnt a good hand, even though its high cards, its the worst combination of high cards and usually can cause heartache when your faced with a tough decision, later finding out its because of a weaker kicker or something. but in other ways people cant complain when youre trying to make plays with respectable hands like these when youre in position and making raises and a variety of plays