playing KQ

King-Queen: A Dubious Hand

The one hand that beginning and intermediate players misplay more often than others is K-Q. The hand looks powerful -- one that would seemingly rank up there with starters like A-K and A-Q -- but it isn't in the same league as those premium cards.

Novice players commonly overvalue the strength of K-Q when they flop a pair to it. Q-5-2 might look like an excellent flop for king-queen, but it can be very dangerous if an opponent has any of the following hands: 2-2, 5-5, Q-Q, A-Q, K-K or A-A.

An expert player is able to fold his king-queen on that flop if he senses that his opponent has a stronger hand. Most amateur players, however, just aren't sophisticated enough to know when to play the hand to the river and when to let it go.

You see, an unimproved K-Q rarely holds up in a race to the river. Even a weak holding like A-3 offsuit will beat it in the long run. If an ace hits, the king-queen is all but dead; if no king or queen hits, the A-3 wins by virtue of simply being higher.

King-queen play is especially important in tournament poker when you’re deciding whether to go all-in or to wait for a better situation.

If a tourney player goes all-in before you, what hands could he have that would mean your K-Q is in good shape? The only hands it dominates are K-J and K-10. It's much more likely that an all-in player has at least an ace; oftentimes he'll have A-K or A-Q, which are both monster favorites over your cards. You'd have just three outs against either hand.

Now let’s say your opponent had a hand like pocket tens. Your K-Q still loses more than 55% of the time. See what I mean by dubious?

I strongly advise players to fold king-queen in the face of an early position raise. A raise from that spot represents a strong hand; one that usually dominates K-Q. However, K-Q is a good hand to attack the blinds when you’re the first player to enter the pot from middle or late position. If that happens, make a standard-size raise. If someone reraises, fold before you get yourself into trouble.

Suited cards usually don’t make a world of difference, but with K-Q it’s often enough of an added edge to allow you to call a raise in marginal situations. Here’s why: You’re now hoping to flop a high pair or, better yet, to catch a straight or a high flush.

K-Q suited versus K-Q offsuit is a significantly better hand in a multi-way pot. The more players that enter a pot, the stronger the average winning hand will be. In a heads-up pot the average winning hand may just be a high pair. But in a five-way action pot, you just might need that flush to win.

Now that you know these facts about king-queen, you can play the hand more reasonably. Yes, it’ll score you some big pots, but don’t get fooled into thinking it’s a premium hand.

[welshy77]

yawn.... cut n paste job from yet another spammer wanting a freeroll password...will we see this person again? Maybe next wednesday

[Akorps]

Yeah, KQ offsuit seems to get me in a lot of trouble

When playing shortstack, you can shove it all in from the small-blind
when you are first in and your stack size is 12bb or less, with a positive
expected value

from the button your stack size needs to be 6bb or less to do that, so
it goes down in value quite fast depending on position

positional values go down exponentially, in other words

[Akorps]

One problem is that KQ is dominated by

1.AA
2.KK
3.QQ
4.AK
5.AQ

all hands that are highly likely to be played (if anyone has them)

I actually like QKs very much.

Novice players commonly overvalue the strength of K-Q when they flop a pair to it. Q-5-2 might look like an excellent flop for king-queen, but it can be very dangerous if an opponent has any of the following hands: 2-2, 5-5, Q-Q, A-Q, K-K or A-A.

An expert player is able to fold his king-queen on that flop if he senses that his opponent has a stronger hand. Most amateur players, however, just aren't sophisticated enough to know when to play the hand to the river and when to let it go.

And be serious, no one will fold KQ on a Q 5 2 flop in ring. If you're waiting to flop the nuts, you might want to try a different game ...

[thejudge]

Originally Posted by patsfanjjb8

King-Queen: A Dubious Hand

The one hand that beginning and intermediate players misplay more often than others is K-Q. The hand looks powerful -- one that would seemingly rank up there with starters like A-K and A-Q -- but it isn't in the same league as those premium cards.

Novice players commonly overvalue the strength of K-Q when they flop a pair to it. Q-5-2 might look like an excellent flop for king-queen, but it can be very dangerous if an opponent has any of the following hands: 2-2, 5-5, Q-Q, A-Q, K-K or A-A.

An expert player is able to fold his king-queen on that flop if he senses that his opponent has a stronger hand. Most amateur players, however, just aren't sophisticated enough to know when to play the hand to the river and when to let it go.

You see, an unimproved K-Q rarely holds up in a race to the river. Even a weak holding like A-3 offsuit will beat it in the long run. If an ace hits, the king-queen is all but dead; if no king or queen hits, the A-3 wins by virtue of simply being higher.

King-queen play is especially important in tournament poker when you’re deciding whether to go all-in or to wait for a better situation.

If a tourney player goes all-in before you, what hands could he have that would mean your K-Q is in good shape? The only hands it dominates are K-J and K-10. It's much more likely that an all-in player has at least an ace; oftentimes he'll have A-K or A-Q, which are both monster favorites over your cards. You'd have just three outs against either hand.

Now let’s say your opponent had a hand like pocket tens. Your K-Q still loses more than 55% of the time. See what I mean by dubious?

I strongly advise players to fold king-queen in the face of an early position raise. A raise from that spot represents a strong hand; one that usually dominates K-Q. However, K-Q is a good hand to attack the blinds when you’re the first player to enter the pot from middle or late position. If that happens, make a standard-size raise. If someone reraises, fold before you get yourself into trouble.

Suited cards usually don’t make a world of difference, but with K-Q it’s often enough of an added edge to allow you to call a raise in marginal situations. Here’s why: You’re now hoping to flop a high pair or, better yet, to catch a straight or a high flush.

K-Q suited versus K-Q offsuit is a significantly better hand in a multi-way pot. The more players that enter a pot, the stronger the average winning hand will be. In a heads-up pot the average winning hand may just be a high pair. But in a five-way action pot, you just might need that flush to win.

Now that you know these facts about king-queen, you can play the hand more reasonably. Yes, it’ll score you some big pots, but don’t get fooled into thinking it’s a premium hand.

Tyvm Chris Ferguson on Poker for Idiots..(or whoever you stole this from) ...Anyone who has played poker more than 3 weeks knows all this stuff anyway....Try and come up with something original.

[elbandido32]

Mani didn't know that someone could write so much about KQ. it's easy just call if its not a big raise then fold if an ace comes on the flop. not rocket science lol unless u flop trips or a str8

[elbandido32]

you think maybe people spend too much time thinking about what they are going to do with the hands they are dealt? what happened to good old fashioned gut instinct!