How to play with AA / KK / QQ / AK?

[antonis32123]

AK I can understand you , it's a drawing hand , not guaranteed you'll hit A or K on the board , even suited , you need to play a little more carefully , see stacks , see more variables in the game before you decide to go all in preflop , for me nowadays go all in with AK for more than 50 blinds is stupid . I hate when I see my AK vs AA , but vs KK it doesn't makes me so sad , but AA , it makes me wanna cry , lol .

KK , to see the other one having AA , is devastating , but ogf the game , what is really devastating and very sad , is tje other guy to have Arag , even A3 or A2 , and beat your kings with his s*** hand , oh man , even if you went all in for more than 10 blinds or even more than 15 blinds . That still hurts me

As for QQs , I trust trust them no at all nowadays , noit even in a flip for less than 20 blinds vs only one foe , I mean , they are so fragile , not to be trusted at all , with more opponents , not to discuss it at all , personally I am ready to fold them anytime , only at freerolls I play them like a donk . I hate QQs

 

[caracaski220]

caracaski220

Position is very important , as is the player you are going against. You have to try to see how they will react to a type of bet from you. What they call or raise with. Having exellent cards is good but how you play them is more important, plus there is the luck factor , that cant be helped.

 

[Jeremy9]

Kk outdrawn again!

Im sick of premium pocket pairs. So often they are outdrawn by the river!! Today anson i lost all in because opponent got triples on the turn. I all the time win regular premium hands like AQ J10s and alike.
I realy thinking maybe i should bloody fold those damned Aa or kk and take down those other certain pots?!

 

[Snake2007]

When I have these top pairs I always play all in without further explanation.

 

[deputat777]

Watch instructional videos on how to play pocket pairs.

 

[Zirkzee]

Statistically, you make the most profit with these hands. Of course, in the short term you may lose more money with these hands than you win, but in the long run it won't. In addition, you have to play your hands differently depending on the structure of the board. For example, if you have QQ and AK flop, your hand can quickly be of little value. You can still try to steal the pot with a c-bet, but if one of your opponents has called your bet, you have to give up your hand on every further action. With these hands you should always raise or 3-bet preflop. With AK you can win the pot after the flop with a c-bet for yourself even if you didn't hit the flop. However, you shouldn't always c-bet. If you have more than two opponents and the flop is very draw-heavy, you shouldn't c-bet.

 

[fletchdad]

I have not read other answers and I am fairly certain this has been said (or should have been) but just in case.....

There is no one-size-fits-all. Even folding AA pre is a legitimate move in the right situation. Rarely, but it can happen.

So what you do with any premium hand depends on multiple factors. And as each hand is unique in most ways, the factors will also all be subjective and situational.

Things that will all influence what you will/should do are:
Your position. How many people in the hand. Play (action) on every street. Reads on opponents. Opponents view of you. and so on.

Example: You raise in EP with KK and get 3 callers. An A comes on the flop.....
You raise in EP and get 2 callers with AcAh. The flop comes 10, 8, J, all spades.
You 3 bet a tight EP from the BB with AKs (hearts) and they call. The flop comes 3 3 9 RB, no heart.

All situations where you stand a bigger chance now of losing with a premium hand. But, maybe not, so...., well, it all "depends"

One of the reasons people like to say "Poker takes 5 minutes to learn, and a lifetime to master"........

 

[dukgen]

Correct me if I'm wrong, good quality hands do well with good/tight players. They'll recognize strength, and join if they have a good hand. Against, new/loose players they'll just be a calling station all the way down to the river. Unless you put them on a decision for all their chips. If it's not your night, then don't force it. Try moving to another seat, or table entirely.

 

[Gusborgs22]

Sometimes you will lose, QQ against K3s its a 70/30 situation.
Tournaments
In early stages when you have like 160-80bbs just tribet and maybe fold AK/QQ against fourbets/ fivebets. You can think about calling against a shove after the tribet
With KK and AA on early stages tribet and if they shove / fourbet just call/fivebet shove
Mid / late stages with 20-40bbs you cant get away of those hands, sometimes you can get away of AK and QQ if your oponent is very tight but in general its a call/shove
Less then 40bbs you can see lots of people shoving 99 88 TT AQ AK JJ, so its hard to fold. Some days ago i was playing an Big tournament. At late stages i had 30bbs, raised from UTG with JJ, villain 1 tribet and villain 2 shoves. They had like 20-30bbs. I folded thinking : in the best case i'm flipping. Showdown: they had 88 and TT. So in that stages its a mandatory call with those hands
In cash games:
You can fold AK/QQ against fourbets/fivebets. Its hard for they to be bluffing. With weak hands they will just call. Fourbets/ fivebets - shove most of the times indicates a very strong hand and probaly you'r losing
GLGL

 

[Tomek416]

It depends on the stage of the tournament and how much chips I have. Sometimes I limp and sometimes I just go all in. If I am low on chips I definitely go all in.

 

[Pokerpoet2]

It is all down to personal choice, I have played A,A, etc by raising pre-flop to achieve two things--
1. reduce the number of opponents
2 build a larger pot
I have also played them slow by calling an aggressive player's raise's and going all the way to the river with them, even when my hand does not improve, because I sense he is also playing a pocket pair, lower than mine.
Some time's you win some time's you lose, it is all down to nature of the game, I have on some occasions played A,A, and hit trips on a A,K,7, flop and when I have bet or even just checked the three of a kind, my opponent shoves all in, what would you do?
Sure he could be holding K,K, or 7,7, to have a smaller set of trips, or even A,K,and have 2 pair, might also be holding a Q,J, and he is drawing to a straight, or even a flush, whatever your decision is, you are damned if you call, and damned if you fold.
I have called and been beaten by him hitting the 10 on the turn or river or even hitting quads, because as with any all-in bet it is always a coin toss and has nothing to do with skill, just pure dumb luck.
That is what make's Poker so much fun, and--

When the fun Stops, STOP!

 

[varadi sityu]

situation depends on who i play against and how many big blinds i am ..paying or before

 

[Zapahlohotrona]

A 3x raise is fine. I don't see any particular reason to deviate from the standard. Raising size shouldn't depend on the strength of pocket cards in a good way. Raising with a large size makes sense when you isolate some strand of a telephoning fish who limped in or when you are in late positions. With an overpair low. a board against two players almost always needs to be bet, and against three, rather, too. On the turn and river, we act according to the situation. It is difficult to describe here in general terms.

 

[dorynel7]

play agressive GL

 

[Datdude1]

Those are always good starting hands but in poker it comes down to the community cards. You can play your hand exactly the way it's supposed to be played but luck has to be on your side also.

 

[ObbleeXY]

I don´t know you, guys...but my main loses are with those kind of cards: AA / KK / QQ / AK.
Even in good positions I think I lose much more times with those kind of cards that the others (while I was writing this post, it happened again QQ lost to K3 unsuited). In one day I lost 9 times with those cards and I won just 1 hand.
What is your recommendation for bet in pre-flop, flop, turn and river with those cards?

OK, so this is a pretty old post, but I think a lot of beginners ask these sorts of questions...ie how do I play XX?

The question itself belies the fact that we have some learning to do. But the learning is not "how to play KK" etc. Instead it should be focussed on (though not necessarily this order):
1. What game are you playing?
2. What stakes?
3. What format?
4. What Ante? (relevant for high ante games)
5. What is your position?
6. What is your opposition like? (TAG? LAG? Nit? Call stations?)
7. What is the magic opening size? (ie the size where everyone folds)
8. How risk averse are you? (do you want heads up or multiway?)
9. What HASN'T been working for you?
10. What has?
11. How big is your stack?
12. How deep into the tournament are you?
13. What is the effective stack size?
14. What is your range?
15. What is your opponent's range? (which for me, drives the nit, tag, lag, fish labelling in 6. above)

So, if you are losing out because everyone folds when you shove pre-flop, or if you hit the magic opening size... stop shoving and lower your opening bet a little. But if your pre-flop raise isn't getting any respect, maybe you aren't raising big enough.

If you really want to figure it all out, you need to get the stats from your hand history and review the specific hands where your expected value is below what it should be. If it is simply getting rivered by a two-outer head to head, then I should say "don't worry about it...it's variance"... but if you are limping in from UTG and joining a family pot, then it should be no surprise that premium hands don't always hold up.

So -- as a note to future commenters/topic authors...try to give some decent info on your specific playing environment...it can help to provide more appropriate answers/comments.

There is no single correct way to play any hole cards all the time. That is the beauty of poker. You need to keep adjusting your basic strategy to exploit the weaknesses you come across.

For example, some players get extremely tight around the bubble, others take advantage of this and loosen up and steal valuable blinds. Without intel on these behaviours, you cannot react to or pre-empt them.

Anywho...will leave it there...

Cheers,
ObbleeXY

 

[martinlgs]

all in forever

 

[kngofpkr]

Pre-flop all in for Q-Q or K-K and pray the lord Raise and see what happens for A-K but for A-A i would never go pre-flop all in unless there is only 3-4 players left. But never trust a poker player. They can do different things with the same cards at diffferent times you know?

 

[BOMDEBLEF]

AA KK all in

ak aq aj 3x 4x would be ideal