Hand: K-K
Sklansky Group: 1
Nicknames: Cowboys, King Kong, The Klan, Ace-Magnets
Kings are the second most powerful starting hand in Texas Hold'em. Behind only Aces pre-flop, cowboys are a big favorite over every other starting hand. If you run KK out against a lone opponent's random hand, cowboys hold up 82% of the time, which is nearly as good as AA's 85%. Against a top 20% hand, KK wins roughly 75%. Against a top 5% hand, KK holds roughly the same 3:1 advantage. Even against AX, Kings hold up 68% of the time.
Life is still pretty good if we run our KK against two opponents holding random hands (68%); against three opponents (58%), and even against four villains (49%). In other words, if you have Kings, the goal really should be to get all your money in preflop, because you're a big favorite.
The old poker saw says that Kings are essentially just as good as Aces preflop. Well, this isn't absolutely accurate, but it's pretty damn close. Preflop, if you treat your KK like you do AA you'll generally be in good shape. Of course it's possible that your Kings may run into someone else's rockets, but this only happens ~4% of the time at a 9-handed table when you hold cowboys. And even if you do run into AA, the Kings will actually win nearly 19% of those times. Or, as we said in the previous paragraph: the goal with KK really is to get all the your money in preflop. Only if you have a super amazing Sherlock Holmes type read on the other player, and you absolutely, positively can put him on rockets, should you ever consider folding. In all other instances, the average poker player would be advised to just get 'er in. Or, as Dan Harrington is often quoted as saying, "I'm not good enough to fold pocket Kings preflop, and neither are you."
Most experts don't generally recommend slow-playing KK, yetsome do-- but only in special circumstances. Doyle Brunson recommends occasionally limping in EP with KK, but only if you suspect that a later position, aggressive player will raise, and then you can come over the top on him. Poker author Collin Moshman agrees that this is reasonable tactic for SnGs, too, when holding cowboys, but cautions that you should only do this at most 10% of the time with KK in EP. Of course, just like we saw last time with AA, limp-reraising is often a dead giveaway to your opponents that you have a monster hand preflop (especially from early position), and they are likely to fold to your shove with anything but AK+ and QQ+. Against this supre tight range, your Kings are just a 57:43 favorite. These odds ain't too shabby, but they're not really the dominating numbers you want when getting all your money in heads up preflop in Texas hold'em, especially in a tournament with your life on the line. In a cash game, sure, take the odds, but in a tourney, you really need to factor in stack sizes, blinds, stage of the tourney, etc.
Now, after the flop, everything changes when holding KK. Because so many opponents like to play AX, especially in the small and micro-stakes games, if an ace hits on the flop you need to slow things down… and, unfortunately, you may be forced to slow it down a fair percentage of the time. An ace will hit the flop roughly 23% of the time when you hold kings, which means one time in four that you see a flop, you will have a tough decision to make due to that ugly ace on the board. No wonder K-K is often called the "Ace Magnet" hand.
OOP (Out Of Position) against one opponent on an A-high board, I think you generally should c-bet half to two-thirds of the pot to find out where you are. Against two opponents, however, you really need to think about check-folding (or maybe bet-folding if the opps are fairly loose) if an ace pops. Against three or more, and you can almost be guaranteed that someone has an ace in their pocket, meaning you're drawing to basically two outs. Daniel Negreanu has a hockey-themed Poker Stars commercial playing on TV recently where he folds KK when up against two opponents on an A-high flop. As cheesy as the ad is, there's a good lesson there; i.e., learn from this example, and you will minimize the damages when dealt cowboys.
Another concern with any big over pair like Kings is running into trips, a set, a straight, etc. The key to sniffing out some of the bigger hands you might be up against is really focusing on putting your opponents on a range of hands (like we discussed in the last blog post). Player stats and tendencies, board texture, hand history, etc. all come into play here. Getting away from a hand where the villain holds a flush is fairly easy, a straight less so, and a set very hard. The trick here really is to exercise pot control(and or fold) if you encounter resistance from a "normal" player on a seemingly non-threatening board. Against maniacs and players with sky-high aggression factors and big c-bet % numbers, you might be best just shoving it in against their aggression.
Gotta run...
All-in for now…
-Bug
No comments:
Post a Comment