The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

You have to be careful when playing certain hands because while some look pretty, they can cause you to lose lots of chips because of underestimating your opponent's hands.

Take a hand like King-Jack...suited or unsuited, it doesn't matter. If you decide to raise with this hand pre-flop and then you are re-raised, what are you going to do with the hand? A lot of beginners don't take the time to think about what starting hands would make someone re-raise before the flop.

Let's say you're heads up against a re-raiser and you decide to call with your King-Jack. The flop comes:

Jack-x-x.

You bet, and then your opponent raises. Now what? Do you continue? Do you still think you have the best hand? A lot of the hands someone would make a raise with include big pocket pairs like Aces, Kings, Queens, & Jacks or a "big Ace" like Ace-King, Ace-Queen & Ace-Jack. So with King-Jack, if someone raises you like in this example, you have no idea where you stand. Were you raised by an overpair, a pair larger than what's on the board? Or perhaps you're up against someone holding an Ace-Jack? In both cases, you are losing the hand, and you may cost yourself lots of chips.

When playing at a full table of nine players, I will not play King-Jack in early position. If five people fold to you, perhaps you might then consider gambling with the King-Jack. You'll notice a lot of pros at big tournaments like the World Series will muck such a hand if they are first to act because they understand how much trouble they can get in with it, especially at a full table. These general guidelines also apply to similar starting hands such as King-Queen and Queen-Jack.

King-Jack does go up in value at shorter tables. I would probably always bring it in for a raise at table of six or less. Or if I'm short-stacked and need to double-up, it is a perfectly acceptable play to make an all-in move with it. Just remember what problems you can get yourself into when you play with them: it can still be a trap hand or a substantial underdog if you go with it, even at shorter tables.

I'll continue discussing trap hands in my next poker column.