UNDERSTANDING HAND STRENGTH - Choosing a good hand

B

boomeranged

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Total posts
54
Chips
0
I see a lot of newbies shoving and calling an all in with KQ and KJ and QJ in the beginning of the tournament and mostly losing and once in a while winning. Sometimes even after not hitting the flop they shove or call all-in. Guys, These are marginal hands and any ace high or any pair is better than these hands. If nothing hits the board, they win and if you and them both hit the board, they win. You have to be lucky to hit the board when they don't to win. Clearly, as you win only in one of the three possible scenarios, you are an underdog and it's better not to play these hands at all.

There are three qualities of a good hand other than pocket pairs that one should look for when selecting hand: Suitedness, straightedness and high-handedness. Your hand as long has two of these three qualities, it's a good hand to begin with as it has maximum chances of turning up a decent draw or a good hand on the flop. That's why KT suited is not as good hand as JT suited and 67 suited is better than JT off. Although I wouldn't recommend playing all the hands with two qualities, this is just a good guide to understand the concept of choosing hands altogether. One important thing that trumps the hand choosing is always position which is explained in a separate thread.
 
G

GreatLeslie

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Nov 10, 2014
Total posts
165
Chips
0
People who shove preflop with anything, whatever it is when they're at the beginning of the tournament are fish of the highest order and nothing more than bingo players.

When you say about shoving with KQ etc; you're right, they're obviously not as good hands as AJ maybe, but sometimes if you're under 10BB you may have to shove something like KTs as you may not get a better opportunity.
 
C

CactusCat

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Total posts
140
Chips
0
I've called all-ins with as bad as queen high - a decent queen like Q9 offsuit will do against a maniac insta-alling every hand, who is likely to show up with random junk. Even king six after two all ins from late-position shoves once, pretty quickly too (and was right!) XD Players who are going too wild with the chip lead are always a factor in boosting your run. Though I doubt this behavior shows up in >$10 buyin tourneys.

If you're in early or middle position, I think you have to throw away hands as strong as A9 even when you know you have the individual player and you can bust a shortstack. Too great a chance of someone else waking up with a real hand shoving over the top and forcing you to fold.
 
Starting Hands - Poker Hand Nicknames Rankings - Poker Hands
Top