How To Play King Queen
King Queen is a quality
starting hand and best played in a tight and
aggressive fashion. King Queen is a hand that
holds up better when making a raise than when
calling one. When played from late position,
King Queen is capable of making a bold statement
- as it can often cause better hands to fold
incorrectly, yet can sometimes stand up
unimproved in more wild table settings. Also
worth noting, supposing the flop misses all of
our opposition, the likelihood of an opposing
player holding an ace is only 15.6% at a full
table. As a result, holding King Queen on a
board that misses everyone, we still have the
best hand.
King Queen Early Position
Thoughts
Playing King Queen unsuited
from early position can be somewhat tricky. As
mentioned in previous strategy articles, when
playing a strong hand in a tight and aggressive
manner, we are usually correct in making a
continuation bet on the flop after raising
preflop. However, with a hand such as King Queen
- we can run into problems. For starters, we
will usually be leading out - which means we
will be betting without having any information
prior to making our continuation bet.
Additionally, because hands such as Ace Queen or
Ace King may either re-raise or call us, we will
often find ourselves dominated preflop when
building a big pot. When playing King Queen from
early position, it is best to keep the pot
small.
King Queen Late Position
Thoughts
When picking up King Queen
from late position, we can freely engage in pot
building activity, as the hand is quality, and
we do have the advantage of position. We can
freely play it as strongly as we desire, as we
have additional information from the players
acting in front of us to work with. Whenever
possible and profitable, we want to keep
pressure on the table and force players into
making mistakes by putting them to tough
decisions.
Consider the Possible Flops
and Post-flop Actions with King Queen
Statistically, the most likely
situation after the flop is that we flop over
cards. The odds of flopping a pair or better
(King or Queen) is approximately one in six.
This means that most flops will result in our
having over cards to
the board. Because this is most likely case, we
want to plan for this and adjust our plan as the
flop and circumstances dictate. Considering we
are tight aggressive poker players, we will be
expected to make a continuation bet if we are
the preflop raiser. While the flop may dictate
how much we bet, it will not change the fact
that more often than not, we will be the flop
after raising preflop.
That being said, we will take
the following actions based on the following
scenarios:
Scenario 1: King Queen Suited
from Middle Position
Action folds around to us,
where we hold King Queen of Spades in middle
position. As stated earlier, we are inclined to
limp from early position with KQ, yet raise from
late position. When the decision to limp and
raise falls somewhere in between, I typically
choose to raise. As a result, we raise to $8. We
get a caller from the small blind, as well as
from the big blind.
$24 in the pot and the flop
comes out Ace, Seven, Five - with two spades.
Top-Rated Online Poker Room - Full Tilt Poker - 100% Sign Up Bonus up to $600 FREE!
Visit Full Tilt Poker
Thoughts on the flop : We
are in position relative to the callers. The
small blind is a loose and passive player, who
tends to play out of the blinds. We suspect the
big blind noticed this, as he seems to call a
lot from the BB, yet my player notes on him
shows he has not really done so in previous
sessions. If either of the players bet the flop,
our intentions are to raise most of the time, as
we want to remain in control of the pot.
Additionally, we have a reasonably nice draw
that we can raise for value and perhaps buy two
cards for the price of one. We were the preflop
aggressor, so a continuation bet or raise makes
sense here as well. We additionally decide to
bet if the players check to us.
Action on the flop: Both
blinds check to us. We decide to bet $20, which
is three-quarters the size of the pot. This will
help build a pot in the event we get a caller,
and additionally feels like a continuation bet.
A bet this size should buy us a free card on the
turn should we decide to take it, and will also
work to gain commitment from the blinds if they
have an ace or a straight draw. We lose the big
blind with the bet, though the small blind
calls.
The pot contains $60 and we
have $172 behind. The turn is a Ten of clubs.
The small blind checks.
Turn Thoughts: We picked
up a gut shot straight draw in addition to our
flush draw. The check from the small blind tells
us little, as he is a weak and passive player.
That being said, he is far more likely to call
with a weak ace or a pair or a set than most
players are. Additionally, if he has us beat, he
would normally wait until the river to spring
the trap on us. We want to continue building the
pot, yet leave enough money behind that we can
get away from the hand in the event the Small
Blind is either slow playing a monster hand, or
in the event we miss the river. We bet $25. The
small blind calls.
The pot contains $110. We have
$147 behind. The river is a six of spades,
completing our flush. The small blind checks. We
were hoping he was waiting to trap us, however,
the spade probably slowed him down, as he is
likely holding an ace. We have to bet the most
he will comfortably call should he have an ace
or better without looking like that is what we
are trying to do. We bet $47, which leaves us an
even $100 behind. Our opposition makes a crying
call and turns over a set of fives - surely
disgusted that his passive play cost him yet
another set.
Scenario 2 Button with King
Queen Unsuited
We are on the button holding
King Queen. A middle position player raises to
6. As stated earlier, we want to use position to
our advantage. We re-raise
to $18. The blinds fold and we get action from
the middle position player.
The flop comes out
Ace-Six-Nine,
which in all fairness totally missed us. The pot
contains $39 and we have $182 left behind. MP
Player bets $10. Because we have position, we
planned to fire a continuation bet nearly the
size of the pot. The $10 bet feels like a
blocking bet to me, as we are sure to fire on
the flop. Our guess is that the player is trying
to do an "ace check".
So, we respond appropriately by raising to $50.
He takes that as we have hit our ace and folds,
showing pocket jacks.
As you can see, King Queen has
the ability to cause better hands to fold from
later position, and holds its own when flopping
either top pair or a draw (be it a straight or
flush draw). By playing King Queen in a tight
aggressive manner, you stand the best chance of
playing optimally and turning a profit during
your online poker session.
Of course,
the best way to learn to play King - Queen and other
Texas Holdem hands is to play and practice. You
can play and practice Texas Holdem in any of our
recommended online poker rooms for free or real
money. Just download and install the poker
client then create an account and start playing
poker.
|
