Surprisingly, some poker players have never heard of the term “Trouble Hands” and are unaware of its true definition. It’s true that anyone can have trouble with playing any
specific hand, even the best hand (pocket aces) can have some people puzzled at a certain point in a given situation. But the basis of this article will be the hands that even if played correctly
can be beat due to their rank or the situation. Not only can they be beat, but they are the most difficult to play. What we are talking about are the “trouble hands” in no-limit
hold’em.
There’s a key concept that a novice player has to be familiar with – domination. To learn this concept, lets take a look at KT offsuit. This is a trouble hand and most solid
players won’t play this hand unless in a pure stealing the blinds situation. Novice players, however, see two broadway cards and start raising as if it were pocket aces. Strictly
looking at the percentages, you’d be called pretty much by hands that put you as a horrible underdog. Against AK and KQ you’re a 74-26 underdog, against AQ offsuit a 62-37
dog. Versus JJ and QQ you are a 71-29 underdog. In all of these spots you are looking at a very unprofitable long term future.
Now the most common trouble hands are J-8, A-10, K-Q, A-x suited, K-10, A-J. Q-9, K-J, J-J, and A-Q. Now there are some obvious reasons why most of these can be difficult to play and why they can
get you into trouble, but other than these, there are some other trouble hands. These “other” trouble hands include TPTK (top pair top kicker) and TTP (top two pair). Many beginners
play these two hands as if they were the nuts and in some cases there are many hands that beat your hand. For Example:
This hand is a hand from the infamous Sunday Million tournament on PokerStars. Now this hand is a little different than usual TPTK hands because the player does not hit his hand until the Turn.
But the theory still applies - let’s say the Ace did hit on the flop with the Q and the 7, then the board would have been Qc 7c Ac. Many players in this situation would commit their whole
stack with just TPTK and the nut flush draw. But like most of the time the player only sees his A standing out from the rest and falls in love with his hand. He does not see that there are many
other hands that beat him. The most obvious draw or scare cards are the clubs, in which if you do not have a high club you should definitely be careful. In when playing this hand you
remember what the players behind you did you can see some other possible hands that they could have that could beat you. In this hand the players both flat called the UTG raise. Usually if the
players had premium hands like AA, KK, or QQ then a re-raised would most always happen, but it did not, thus giving us a good read that they may have small to medium pairs or suited connectors.
As you can see this is exactly what happened, and the player with TPTK got in “trouble” since he over valued his hand.
Trouble hands are not dependant between 6max and Fullring. Later there will be an article that discussing 6max strategy but in short the biggest mistake players make is thinking that since
there are less players your range exponentially increases and these trouble hands are suddenly premium cards – and nothing could be further from the truth. The simple truth about these
hands is that it really is all about position and the opponent and not out-witting yourself.
I could write a novel on the trouble hands in which I listed above, but for the sake of simply making readers aware of this theory, let’s talk about one of the most talked about trouble
hands in which people run into and ask questions about. I am talking about pocket jacks. The reason why this hand is considered a trouble hand is because it seems like a really good hand and at
the same time it seems like a bad hand. For Example:
In this hand ‘kingcurtis’ makes a raise (this is from a tournament) UTG but is 3bet (reraised) by the small blind. Preflop, kingcurtis is playing essentially out of position, with the
advantage of position postflop. This is one of the big reasons why JJ is a trouble hand. In this situation, many might re-raise or go all in, but since the player is acting late preflop and
re-raising they could easily be holding QQ, KK, or AA, which has the player dead to 2 outs depending on the flop. Now even if a player just calls like in this hand example, then what? If we
believe the player has a big hand and the flop doesn’t give us a set, then why are we still in the hand?
My suggestion is to make a good read and possibly lay this hand down pre-flop. In this hand the player obviously had to lay it down. Not only was he allowing the SB to abuse their bad position,
but there was a paired board and a higher card out there. You might be thinking I’m crazy for saying to lay Jacks down pre-flop, but consider it for a moment. Let’s say we think the
other player has AA (just for the sake of example). If we just call his re-raise pre-flop, then what are we going to do if the board comes all low cards? It is easy to lay down the hand if the
board is all high cards, since a K or a Q can easily beat us, but are we not wasting chips by calling his re-raise or even his flop bet?
The point of this article is not to make you fold every TPTK or trouble hand you get. It is to make you more aware of the certain situations and mistakes that can occur that many others do not
see. Therefore you will have another “one-up” on the other players, rather than being in trouble!
