Which poker hand gives you the biggest headache?

Which poker hand gives you the biggest headache?

Anyone who plays Texas Hold’em knows the problem isn't always getting a bad hand... sometimes the real trouble is getting a hand that’s too good
hands like JJ, QQ, or AK look amazing, but depending on the flop, your position, and most importantly your opponent, they can turn into a total trap.
When it happens to me, I ask myself: "Should I have folded that pre-flop?" And the answer is almost always: No!
🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

The problem with big starting hands is becoming too attached to them. JJ, QQ, and AK are premium hands preflop, but the board and opponent's actions can completely change their value.
Folding them preflop is rarely the issue—the real skill is knowing when to let them go.

Here's a hand that I played. Live home game, 6 players, small tournament mode, $20 buy-in, winner take all.

It's early, first orbit, still 6-handed. I have TT. I open it 3x from MP. Kid on my left snap calls and I'm thinking 'uh-oh', but then EVERYONE behind me also flat calls and only one of the blinds folds for 5-way.

So what are we thinking here? What is TT's prime vulnerability? Overcards. If I open and get FOUR callers, EVERY overcard on the board kills me because SOMEONE has it. So I immediately know that I am check-folding any flop that has a J or better on it. Furthermore, this is an extremely fishy limpy, cally table with a couple of rookies on it and if I bluff no one is folding a pair of Js.

The flop came A K rag. It's TT's worst nightmare and I have an IMMEDIATE check-fold. I check, the kid on my left checks, someone behind bets. I fold. It ends up stacking 3-way, including the kid on my left. Up and over, a pair of Aces wins a huge one and felts 2 players, including kid on my left who had QQ. He effectively had the same hand that I had. The only hand that he was ahead of that I was behind was JJ, but he could not lay down his QQ in a multi-way pot no matter how fugly the board was.

We played 3 games that night and I don't remember which one of the 3 that was. but I won the first one and I had the big stack heads-up of the other 2 and lost them both due to extreme variance.

Now, next game. Player on my right limps. I limp in with 33. We're in a 3 or 4 way limp pot. Flop was 863 if I recall. I have a set. Player on my right bets large. I'm the only caller. We end up stacking I think on the turn. He shows ... TT (which was STILL somehow an overpair on the river!). I told him, "You need to open that hand. You lost because you limped it pre." He gets a little upset with me for telling him how to play. He felt that it was a really strong hand that he could slow play. I told him to never slow play pre. By limping TT that junky flop that SHOULD favor you is now dangerous. I could fluke 2-pair or a set on 863 or what do you do if there's an A or a K? You have no read on me. Every card no matter how junky now poses a threat. He had a lovely flop for TT and ended up felting.

It's how you play them.

Pocket Jacks. They look amazing until the flop reminds you why they’re one of the trickiest hands to play.

I think for me its not necessarily a single specific hand, but the attachment of having trips and when to give up that hand when im most likely beaten. Any two pairs comes second next. A singular strong pair feels like relatively easy to muck, but having an hand at a good spot is a different story (atleast for me).

I don't actually think any of the cards can give me a headache, it depends on your type of opponent, if you can think in ranges and play against your opponent that you have a good read on, it doesn't matter what's in your hand.

For me, it’s probably pocket jacks. They look strong preflop, but once the board gets ugly, it can be difficult to know whether you’re still ahead or just talking yourself into calling. A lot depends on position, opponent and board texture rather than the hand itself.

JJ e AQ. These are hands that quickly lose their strength post-flop, and we think we're ahead.

For me it's QQ probably - looks good preflop, but one scary flop and you have to make a million decisions. You almost never fold QQ preflop but you can have so much trouble post-flop! ♠️😅

AQ gives me headaches. It’s one of those hands that looks way better than it actually feels when someone starts putting serious pressure on you lol.

I dont think, any hand gives me particular headache. Maybe it can be argued, that junky hands like 73o or T2o are easier to play, because we can mostly just fold them preflop. But any hand, that we regularly play, can put us into situations, where we need to make decisions, that are not always clear. And frankly this is, where poker players make or lose their money, so its just something, they need to get used to. If its a general challenge for someone to play AK, when its A high, or JJ, when its third pair, then many other hands are also going to be a challenge.

I think what I hate the most is being in the big blind with hand aces and that no one pays me. I feel like everyone can see my cards.

fundiver199 said:

I dont think, any hand gives me particular headache. Maybe it can be argued, that junky hands like 73o or T2o are easier to play, because we can mostly just fold them preflop. But any hand, that we regularly play, can put us into situations, where we need to make decisions, that are not always clear. And frankly this is, where poker players make or lose their money, so its just something, they need to get used to. If its a general challenge for someone to play AK, when its A high, or JJ, when its third pair, then many other hands are also going to be a challenge.

Click to expand...

Yes it's those middle type of hands that are more difficult. AA we can easily open, and usually continue. 72o we can easily fold. What do we do with 97s?

If we are having trouble playing certain hands, it is a sign of inexperience. We need to study more and practice more, to learn more skills which make it easier to play a wider range of hands with confidence post-flop. Pre-flop should be easy. A hand is either in the range that we are comfortable opening/defending with or it isn't. Play that accordingly. But when we have thin value with a meh hand post-flop, or a draw, what do we do with this hand?

I have found that the more that I study, learn new techniques and then put them into practice and review that practice, the more confident I am continuing with more hands. For instance, once I learned proper pre-flop play and learned the advantages of being tight, the game became too simple. Since I always have strong cards, if I hit them it's easy value bet time, and if I don't I can just give up. And I had success with this (not as much success as I have now of course) and this led me to think that luck was the deciding factor of whether I win or not. And to a large degree it was. Certainly my choice to be tight pre-flop and only play strong hands is considered skill, it's not a huge skill but it is a better decision than all of the fish who limp-call me and chase draws, but whether I win the hand really came down to if I hit or not. If I hit my strong hand, I value bet and most of the time I win, and if I whiff my strong hand, I check and check-fold and most of the time I lose. There had to be more to the game than this. And of course there isn't too much more to the game than this when we only play strong hands like AKo QTs and JJ. What I had to do was learn some more skills and techniques so that I could play weaker hands.

If we play 97s and hit 2nd pair 9 and back door straight, it's NOT straight forward. This is where we need to learn check and evaluate, or blocker bet (if Villain is aggro and splashy) or price out draws (and overcards), or what have you. This is where position will play a massive role because we will have more options in position than out of position. This is also where Villain tendencies might play a huge role here as well. Are we watching the stacks? Are we heads-up?

I remember the first time that I decided to play J8s after learning to play tight. It was nervewracking throwing down a strong opening from the button. It didn't help that I hit, barreled 3 streets, got called and my dumb opponent chased the back door and caught it. I was like, "what did I do wrong??" I needed to study the hand and have a couple of friends help me to assure me that I had played it fine.

Once I learned to c-bet I suddenly became very confident opening very wide in late position and was taking down all of these pots with borderline junk like Ax or J7s. Then I learned more about board textures and Villain ranges and this allowed me more ways to bluff which gave me more options post-flop. Now I still play tight but I am able to add a few more speculative hands into my ranges, and I'm not nervous post flop with them anymore.

Another thing is when you win more, you tend to have a bigger stack, so when Villain bets half pot, it's not too hard to continue when the bet doesn't really damage your stack.

My game is now at a point where I may hardly be a great player, but I have enough skills that no 2 cards that I am dealt ever make me nervous. It's only the icky boards post-flop that once in a while make me nervous.

When I cold call my Ax vs EP and I had a pair of Aces on flop but the enemy has a Ace better