Everyone who competes in texas hold’em knows that a-k is one of the greatest starting hands. But, it is simply that, an opening hand. It is simply two cards of a 7-card equation. In just about each new situation, you’ll want to come out guns blaring with A-K as your hole cards. When the flop arrives, you need to analyze your cards and consider things completely before you just presume your overcards are best.
Like many other situations in hold’em, understanding your adversaries will help you gauge your situation when you have A-K and observe a flop like 9-8-2. After you bet preflop and were called, you assume your competitor is also holding great cards and the flop might have missed them as badly as it missed you. Your assuming will frequently be correct. Also, don’t overlook that most lousy folks wouldn’t know great cards if they happen over them and could have called with Ace-Something and paired the board.
If your opposing player checks, you might check and see a free card or place a wager and try to grab the pot up right there. If they wager, you can raise to see if they are for real or fold. What you want to avert is simply calling your competitor’s wager to see what the turn gives rise to. If any card other than and Ace or King is turned over, you will not have any more information than you did after the flop. Now let us say the turn shows a 4 and your opposition bets again, what will you do? To call a bet on the flop you had to think your hand was the best, so you have to surely think it remains so. So, you call a bet on the turn and one more on the river to discover that your opposition was holding 10-8 and only had second pair following the flop. At that instance, it hits you that a raise the bet after the flop might have won the pot right there.
Ace-King is a gorgeous thing to see in your hole cards. Just be sure you gamble on them astutely and they’ll achieve you awesome cheerfulness at the poker table.