Go On Reading Below or Join Our Texas Holdem Betting Now!

With the rise in poker’s popularity, specifically online Texas Holdem, it seems like the formidable starting hands are losing more frequently than they ought to in betting online. Is there a cause for this? More unskilled opponents are calling everything right down to the river, and that’s why a hand like Ace-King is losing more frequently than it ought to.



It is extremely common to see a raise with Ace-King being called by 4 or five hands in low-limit Texas Holdem games. All of a sudden the AK doesn’t seem nearly as strong against 4 or five drawing hands.

Even someone calling with something like A-7 might present a difficulty if a flop like A-3-7 comes down. It seems as though the AK would seem very strong here, but you have no way of knowing that someone flopped 2 pair.

The bottom line when you play Ace-King, and an Ace or a King hits on the flop, is that you are going to wager. It is the proper approach. That does not mean you will always win, specifically in Limit Holdem where individuals will draw with anything.

You have more players that are playing marginal hands in Limit Holdem, and there are going to be more bad beats for a hand like Ace-King when that happens. Is there anything it is possible to do with the Ace-King? In that prior situation, how many ways can you play the Ace-King?

Technically you might fold Ace-King just before the flop but that is not an option. You might check instead of betting, but that is not a great choice either. AK is a great hand and you want more money in the pot. You might check on the flop instead of leading out with a wager, but you give other players a free card.

So how might you have played the Ace-King much better? If someone flops the 2 pair, there truly is not much it is possible to do. You are probably only stuck paying them off.

Why does Ace-King fail so frequently? For one, way too many players are staying in the hand. There is nothing it is possible to do about that. You will still need to lead out and wager. Secondly, it probably only seems like AK is losing a lot.

It makes you want to play more hands that you probably should not if you consistently get bad beats with AK. It truly gets tough when you consistently see everyone hitting crap hands like A-3, K-5, etc, to beat your stronger starting hand.

You begin to feel that if they can play marginal hands, you can too. So you begin losing with A-10, A-9, K-10, etc, instead of losing with only AK from time to time.

In reality, AK probably does not lose an undue amount of the time, it only seems that way. AK only looks so great that when you lose it sets you on tilt which is all you remember.


The Poker Host website is dedicated to providing visitors with an intuitive, high-tech online poker community focused on fair play and offering customer support.

http://www.pokerhost.com/