Group 6: Suited and Not Suited High King and Middle Ace Combinations

Part 6. If You Have Small Cards with Ace or Middle Cards with King

Not suited A9, A8

In early position fold these hands.

In third and fourth positions get rid of them as well. You can start playing these hands from fifth position. When you play them tend to raise in order to lower the necessity of seeing flop. Use the following raise and call correlation – 70% of cases to 30%.

In late position you should also raise with these hands. Raise in 90% of cases and call in 10% because it’ll be to your advantage simply to take the pot.

Suited and not suited A7 and lower

At a serious table I would fold all these hands, if only I am not on the button or next to it. On the button I would raise with any ace hand. If I’m next to the button I raise only on ace-seven and ace-six hands. The following recommendations concern weak tables and the cases when players contributing blinds refuse to defend their positions.

I would play suited ace-seven from fifth position and further combining raises and calls fifty on fifty. Not suited ace-seven I would play from sixth position with the same ratio of raises and calls.

Hands between ace-six and ace-two I would play only in late position raising in all cases in order to steal blinds. However if players contributing blinds have shown toughness before, I would simply get rid of these hands.

Suited and not suited KQ, KJ, QJ

These hands are very dangerous and tricky for beginners which having seen two pictures think they have a great hand. Though they can be played in certain situations, they should be used very carefully.

In early position just fold king-jack and queen-jack combinations both suited and not suited. In tight games either suited or not suited king-queen hands should be folded as well. In loose games with suited king-queen combination you should raise in 50% of cases and in 50% call. If your king-queen are not suited then call in 50% of cases and in other 50% fold.

In middle position these hands are a little better. Having king-queen in middle position I’d play varying raises and folds as 60% to 40%. In third or fourth position I would play king-jack in correlation fifty on fifty of raises and calls. In fifth position I’d raise in 60% of cases and in the rest 40% I would call. I would play both hands in the same way no matter if they are suited or not. As for queen-jack combination, I would fold this hand in third position, play it in suite in fourth position varying raises and calls equally and raise oftener in fifth position.

In late position I’d raise all these three hands trying to win blinds.

All the percents given in this chapter are of course just general recommendations based on my own experience. Bear in mind also that the kind of table (tight or loose, weak or strong) will influence your decision to play those hands.