premium hands

Poker is considered a game of luck by many folks. This is partially true as there is much skill required in order to be successful in this card game. The key in this game is knowing the values of each starting hand and whether they have the 'strength' to win you the hand.

I'm giving insite into tactics I have tried and tested countless online tournaments aswell as at local house games:
- royal pockets and Very strong hands: A.A, K.K, Q.Q A.K, A.Q K.Q, J.J... These would be referred as the strongest hands to play 'preflop' . *a key to remember, the strongest hand 'pre-flop' isn't necessarily the strongest after the flop.

A very important characteristic in poker strategy is to adapt a game plan that best suits YOU!

With the premium cards your goal is to show you're AUTHORITY. A pre-flop raise (situation and chip stack influence the value of the bet) In my opinion with AA your bet should be large but not too big that it scares everyone off. With KK and QQ there are possible over cards that can land on the flop which will put pressure on the rest of the hand. So a preflop raise of roughly 2 or 3x Big Blind will enable you to retrieve information on the rest of the table.
*poker isn't necessarily about the cards you're dealt, its about how you play them and how you read your opponents!

A.K, A.Q, J.J and K.Q... Consider these high and strong possibilities (excl J.J). These may take more thought than the royal pockets because they aren't made Pairs as yet. So the preflop bet will initiate your hand strength. Bets can range from 2x to 4x BB... Situational of course.

Raising preflop with nothing as yet isn't bluffing its the beginning of your story, and a story requires a 2nd chapter so with these hands a continuation bet can be used to see where you are positioned in the race (hand). This shouldn't be made in situations where its unnecessary like when u miss completely!

*the greatest tip I can give is treat poker like a chess game. Calculate every move knowing exactly what you will do in all possible outcomes. Basically, when you bet know what to expect from your opponent and have an idea of what you going to do next...

How this is related to my game - just tonight when I was beat with AA and QQ even tho there are little to no changes I could make in the way I played these to premium hands. A larger preflop bet might have influenced the outcome a little more. When you raise preflop you remove the small hands from your opponent unless they making 'magic plays' as I call them.
> I leave you with the thought: is it really safe to TRAP or SLOW PLAY *pocket rockets* {A.A}