What Are Some Good Poker Hands

Below is the solution for Word in some good poker hands crossword clue. This clue was last seen on August 1 2019 USA Today Crossword Answers in the USA Today crossword puzzle. While searching our database we found 1 possible solution matching the query Word in some good poker hands.

In this lesson we take a look at the different hands we may hit on the flop. Just what is the strength of those poker hands and how do you play with them to ensure you extract maximum value from your winning hands or don’t fall down a trap? Some may appear stronger than they actually are and there are many factors to consider when deciding how to play with them after the flop.

What Are Some Good Poker Hands Images

  1. Computer Hand (statistically, this is the average winning hand in Hold’em) J6. Railroad Hand (repeating “Jacks and sixes” sounds like a train on its tracks) J5. Jackson Five. Flat Tire (what’s a jack for?) 10-5. Dime Store Woolworths (the old discount five and dime store chain) 10-4. Broderick Crawford (his catchphrase in “Highway Patrol”).
  2. Below is the solution for Word in some good poker hands crossword clue. This clue was last seen on August 1 2019 USA Today Crossword Answers in the USA Today crossword puzzle. While searching our database we found 1 possible solution matching the query Word in some good poker hands.

Flopping Nothing

This will be a common occurrence, and if this happens you will have a decision to make whether to carry on or not.

You have the following options:

  • Check or Fold – Check in an attempt to see a free card, but fold to any bet
  • Continuation – If we have shown strength before the flop we can make a continuation bet in the hope of taking the pot there and then

Which of the above options we take will depend on the strength of our hand (even though we haven’t hit on the flop) and also the read we get on our opponent, if the read we get suggests he has hit the flop then it is more likely we will fold to any bet, if he appears weak and we think he may also have missed the flop then we may go for the continuation bet and try and take the pot.

Flopping a Draw

The two main drawing hands you will be facing are the Open Ended Straight draw, and the Flush draw.

Now we know from the poker maths section that we will only play draws if the odds are in our favour. So if our opponent acting before us bets then we use our poker maths to work out the odds and only play if the odds are in our favour.

If we are in late position and our opponent checks into us, then we can either just take a free card to try and hit our draw, or we can try and take the pot there and then with a continuation bet if we have shown strength before the flop.

It gets a little more complicated when we have to act early before our opponent, we have very little information on whether our opponent has hit anything on the flop, so all we can do is look at his betting pattern before the flop and decide if the flop fits in with the kind of hand we think he has. Then we have the following options:

  • Continuation Bet – If we were the aggressor before the flop we can try and take the pot now with a continuation bet and hope that our opponent has not hit anything on the flop.
  • Limitation Bet – This type of bet is to try and limit the amount of the bet in order that we get the correct odds for our draw. Acting first, we would make this type of bet in the hope that our opponent does not raise, if he just calls then we are getting the correct odds to play our draw, if he folds then we take the pot there and then. If he does raise then we now have more information about his hand as he has indicated strength, and we still have the opportunity to get out of the hand if we wish.
  • Check – We can also just check and hope for a free card, however we run the risk here of being priced out by a bet from our opponent, but this is fine, if we don’t have the odds then we won’t play.

Don’t chase draws unless you have the correct odds to do so. If you are priced out of it then fold your hand and wait for the correct opportunity. Remember we profit from our opponents mistakes, and if we chase cards when we don’t have the odds to do so, then it is us making the mistake and it will be our opponents who will profit from it.

Flopping a Pair

This should be quite a common occurrence but a pair alone is not a particularly strong hand. There are lots of ways our opponent can have us beat, he may be holding a pocket pair higher than the top pair on the flop, he may have hit 2 pair, he may have hit a set, straight, flush … the list goes on.

Now some of these hands, such as the straight or flush we can rule out from looking at the texture of the flop, but most of the other hands are disguised and we only have the betting patterns of our opponent to try and put him on a hand.

So it is for the reasons above that we play cautiously with only a single pair.

  • Top Pair – Despite all the caution above, this is a reasonably strong hand, and there is a reasonable chance that we are in the lead, so we should assume we are in the lead and use a value bet until we get any conflicting information from our opponent that suggests he may have us beat.
  • Middle and Bottom Pair – We shouldn’t really be very interested in these, they are very weak hands that are easily beaten. We can make a probe bet here to get some information from our opponent, but at the first sign of strength we want to fold and get out of the hand.

Flopping Two Pair

Two pair is a strong hand and we will be looking to build the pot up now, as we have a very good chance of winning the hand. However we still need to play the hand correctly to not only ensure we win as much as is possible, but also to protect our hand.

It is very unlikely that we are going to improve our hand, we will only improve our hand to a full house 17% of the time, so the chances are that if we are going to win this hand then we will do so with two pair.

So we have to keep an eye out on the texture of the flop for opportunities for our opponent to improve their hand to one that can beat our two pair, and in those situations make sure our opponents don’t have the correct odds to call draws.

There are 3 types of two pair we can flop.

Top Two Pair

We are almost certainly leading at this stage, It is unlikely that our opponent has hit top or middle set (as we are holding two of the cards available), there is a small chance that they have hit bottom set, but we can be reasonably confident that we are in the lead.

So our goal here is to build the pot up and extract as much money from our opponent as possible. I would recommend a simple value bet here, and would bet slightly more if there is any indication of a straight or flush draw on the texture of the flop.

Bottom Two Pair

We will use similar aggression here to Top Two Pair. In this situation we are hoping that our opponent has flopped top pair, as our opponent will only have 5 outs in which to beat us and will probably be prepared to put some money into the pot.

Top and Bottom Pair

Surprisingly out of the three, we are most vulnerable with Top and Bottom pair. This is because if our opponent has top pair then he has an extra out with the chance the middle card could pair on the board which would counterfeit our top and bottom pair giving us both Top two pair, and the likelihood of our opponent having a higher kicker.

E.g. We hold A 5 and our opponent holds A Q, the flop comes down A 9 5, now if any 9 comes on the turn or the river our two pair is now counterfeited and both us and our opponent hold top two pair, but we only have a 5 kicker and he has a Q kicker so he has the winning hand.

We still hold a very strong hand with Top and Bottom pair, however because of this extra out our opponent has, we will play this hand very aggressively and make our opponent pay to see any further cards. We are quite happy to take the pot now without any further risk. I would recommend a pot sized bet here.

Flopping a Set

A Set is where we hold a pocket pair in our starting hand, and we hit the third card on the flop to give us three of a kind. This is a really powerful hand mainly because it is very disguised and our opponent most probably won’t have a clue that we have hit a set, and may well think he is in the lead with a weaker hand.

So again we want to get as much money into the pot without scaring our opponent off, whilst also protecting our hand against any possible draws that could beat us.

  • If there is a Straight or Flush Draw on the flop – Bet aggressively and make sure we don’t give our opponent the correct odds to call, if they do then they have made a mistake, and in the long run we will profit from it.
  • If we think our opponent has hit something – Lead out betting with a value bet or a slightly higher bet, then we are hoping that our opponent, who may have hit top pair and be thinking he is in the lead, raises us.
  • If we think our opponent hasn’t hit anything – In this situation we may want to continue to disguise the strength of our hand by checking in the hope that this will induce a bluff from our opponent, who otherwise wouldn’t of put any money into the pot if we had bet. If we do end up giving our opponent a free card here, this is not a problem as we are hoping that our opponent hits some sort of hand, which doesn’t beat us, but which encourages him to put some money into the pot on the next round of betting.

Flopping Trips

Trips is where a pair comes down on the flop and we hold the third card in our hand to make 3 of a kind. The only difference between Trips and a Set is that Trips is not disguised and our opponents will be aware not only of the possibility that we have the third card in our hand but also the possibility of a full house.

This will mean that our opponents will be much more reluctant to commit chips into the pot, so we want to try and ensure we don’t scare them off.

However a lot of players often attempt a bluff when they see a pair on the board, so quite often we can slow play this sort of hand in the hope of inducing a bluff from our opponent. The other option is to make a small bet similar to a probe bet and see if any opponent bites.

As always check the texture of the flop for any draw possibilities and if there is any, then always play your hand aggressively to protect it.

You shouldn’t expect to win a very large pot with Trips, as it is so obvious. However against a bad player who has hit top pair or similar we may get lucky.

Flopping a Straight

Again, this is a very strong hand, but the straight possibility will also be very obvious to our good opponents.

There are two types of straight we can flop:

  • Smart End – Highest possible straight (e.g. Our Hand 9, 10 – Flop 6, 7, 8)
  • Dumb End – Lowest straight (e.g. Our hand 4, 5 – Flop 6, 7, 8)

In general it is better to bet these hands rather than slow play:

  • Smart End – I recommend a bet here rather than slow playing, because there are so many scare cards (for your opponent) that can come on the turn which will prevent him betting later on, so we should try and get some money in the pot now if we can. A value bet of about ½ the pot is good here, or a little more if you are playing against a loose opponent or you think your opponent has hit top pair or similar.
  • Dumb End – Here we should play very aggressively to protect our hand and also test if our opponent has the smart end of the straight. if you get raised he probably has it, if you get called this may also be a sign he has it and is slow playing it. About a pot sized bet here would be about right.

Flopping a Flush

It is very unlikely that you will flop a flush (1 in 119 times), it is much more likely that you will flop a draw to a flush. When you do flop a flush it will be very hard to get action as people will be very unwilling to bet when 3 cards of the same suit come down on the flop.

Power strike slot machine online. Our best chance of winning a decent pot here is if our opponent has hit a lower flush than ours

  • Nut Flush / High Flush – slow play and hope that your opponent has hit or will hit a lower flush.
  • Lower Flush – play more aggressively to protect your flush against anyone holding a draw to a better flush. If you get raised or your opponent bets into you aggressively you have to consider that he may have a higher flush than you, and you may need to throw the hand away.

Flopping a Full House

A great flop for you! However, once again your opponent may be wary because of the pair showing on board.

The best way to play a full house is to make a small to medium sized value bet and hope that your opponent has caught something on the flop which tempts them to play.

Against a very tight player who will fold to any bet, slow play and hope he catches up a little on the turn which will tempt him to bet.

https://satnin.netlify.app/wheel-of-fortune-game-show-1950s.html. Altogether, the wheel weighs approximately 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg).

If there is a draw on, then we want to try and give the right odds for our opponent to call, so make sure your bet is small enough to give those odds. If our opponent hits their draw then this could lead to a very big pot for us, with our Full House still in the lead.

Flopping Four of a Kind

Well first thing is to stop jumping up and down and concentrate on how you are going to get the biggest pot out of this monster hand.

Generally the best way here is to slow play and hope that someone gets involved in the pot betting with a weaker hand or with a bluff. If someone does bet into you, then just call, don’t reveal your strength yet. After the turn or river we can start to look to raise and build the pot up a bit more.

Poker Bankroll Challenge: Stage 5

  • Stakes: $0.02/$0.04
  • Buy In: $4 (100 x BB)
  • Starting Bankroll: $63
  • Target: $20 (5 x Buy In)
  • Finishing Bankroll: $83
  • Estimated Sessions: 5

Use this exercise to consider the real strength of your hand and how to extract the maximum value out of all pots where you have the winning hand. Don't forget the other foundations of your strategy though, we are building step by step and you should now be consolidating all your new knowledge in the way you play at the tables.

“I don’t need a lesson on how to beat beginners at poker. They don’t know what they are doing!” Unfortunately, in poker that same inexperience can be to the new players’ advantage because in a single session of poker, luck can work against you.

It’s important to remember that just like in any session of poker, you should be making decisions based on expected value. You can sometimes get unlucky against a beginner because they are not playing poker “correctly”, and this can be frustrating at times. However, when you’re playing against inexperienced players, who make many mistakes, in the long run you will make major profits.

Typical Beginners Tendencies

New poker players have easy to recognize tendencies in their play that you can captialize on. For this lesson, we will identify those tendencies using information from other lessons on Pokerology, such as our list of typical beginner mistakes. Then we’ll provide some effective poker strategies that you can use against these players, which should yield major profits.

The beginner who plays too many hands

This type of beginner is very easy to spot. They will often show down easily dominated hands like Ace-rag, K-8, Q-5, or any suited cards. They will limp into lots of pots and call a raise “just to see the flop”. Calling a re-raise out of position with a hand like K-J or A-rag is commonplace. Depending on if they are capable of folding or are a calling station, there are different ways to play them pre-flop:

  • Capable of folding – if you have position, raise with a wide range of hands and bet the flop if they call pre-flop and check to you. If they call, they usually have a piece or a draw and you can slow down depending on your hand
  • Calling station – consider limping behind pre-flop with hands you might raise other people in order to keep the pot small since you shouldn’t be bluffing them much pre-flop.
  • Open up the range of hands that you would normally put someone on. Because they are new, you can’t assume they are always playing a standard hand for the situation.

The beginner who gets committed to a hand

Beginners tend to be calling stations and table sheriffs so look for them to call bets on all streets with easily beaten hands. For example, calling all the way with a hand like 7-7 on an A-K-T flop or calling large bets with middle pair.

  • NEVER bluff a calling station – they will pay you off enough when you have a hand.
  • If you have a strong hand, don’t slow play. Bet as much as you think they will call.
  • If they ever do raise, beware, they usually have a strong hand so play cautiously. Often times, this occurs when they have sucked out to hit two pair.

The beginner who chases

The beginner who likes to chase can be easily identified. They will consistently call bets on draws without getting the proper odds (even gut-shot draws). They will chase over-cards and Ace high and will call quickly on a draw.

  • Charge them to draw – as much as you think they will call. Don’t bet just to “protect your hand”. They will miss their draw more than they will make it, so make them pay for it.
  • Tread cautiously if a flush or straight draw hits.
  • If they seem to be chasing and make a big river bet when a draw misses, consider making the call if you have a decent hand.

The beginner who bluffs too much

Keep an eye out for the beginner who makes large bets or raises that don’t make sense. This type of beginner will continuously make plays at pots without regard to his table image. This player will typically try to appear aggressive and show strength with physical poker tells (if playing live).

Best
  • If you see a pattern, be prepared to go with your instinct and make calls of oversized bets that don’t make sense. While advanced players can often make a large bet representing a bluff, but this is not typical with beginners.
  • Also note that beginners will often make large bets when they have a big hand as well, but the important thing here is observing a pattern of bluffing.

The beginner who plays passively

Be aware of the passive beginner who doesn’t play many pots and will often just call pre-flop. If they do raise pre-flop, they often check it down if they missed with over cards (i.e. Ace-King). They will often raise the minimum with marginal hands for fear of losing chips if they get beat – and will often fold to scare cards. Due to a lack of experience they play with a fear of losing and will only stay in a pot if they have a strong hand.

  • If they have not shown aggression, bluff them at will.
  • If they limp pre-flop or bet small, raise with a wide variety of hands.
  • Stay out of the pot if they are betting strong or raising unless you have a very strong hand yourself.
  • Bet scare cards (i.e. Ace on board or made flush).
  • Use scary bet sizes that represent monsters (this could be overly small or big bets).
  • If you are in the blinds, you can call a raise if they are in late position and bet any flop. You will know immediately where you stand and can often bluff them out of the pot.
What

The beginner who bets based on hand strength

Beginners often bet larger with stronger hands and smaller with their weaker hands, especially on the flop. They will often limp or raise small with Aces, Kings and Queens because they think it’s smart to build the pot with a lot of people.

  • Watch for predictable patterns and simply play poker based on the value of your hand vs. the hand you put them on.
  • If they are betting weakly, they are likely weak and you can decide if you want to bluff or bet for value based on their psychological tendencies.
  • Watch for a small raise pre-flop followed by very large bets on the flop. This is often a sign of a big pocket pair.

Hand Example

  • No Limit Hold’em Tournament Play
  • Blinds: 25/50
  • You and your opponent both have 3,000 in chips.

Reads

Your opponent has been involved in a lot of pots, limping into most and raising with his big hands. He’s already been going up and down in chips in the early stages of the tournament. Based on how many pots he’s limped into and the types of hands he’s shown down on the river after calling every street (i.e. top pair/low kicker, bottom pair, missed draws) you can tell he’s a beginner. The pots he has won were because his opponents were misplaying their hands by trying to bluff him or because he’s hit a draw to a flush or straight. When he did catch a card to make a draw, he immediately pushed all-in.

Pre-Flop

Your opponent is under the gun and, as usual, limps into the pot. Based on how many hands he’s played, this could be a wide range. One other player with 1,500 chips limps in middle position, and in the cut-off you look down to see :

Figure 1

How should you play this hand?

Well, based on past behaviours you know the UTG opponent wants to see the flop and will call most raises. At the same time, while AK is strong it will often times miss the flop and you will have a hard time pushing your opponent off if he catches any piece. Because of that, limping is an option as it will disguise the strength of your hand and control the pot size. So should you limp? In some cases, this might be an okay way to mix up your play, but “disguising” and “mixing things up” only have value against someone who is paying attention to how you are playing. In this case, the UTG player is a beginner and is only playing his cards. Another reason not to limp is the presence of other people in the pot. Your limp will encourage others behind you to limp and they can easily catch a hand. Ace-King is also too good of a hand to not raise for value.

So the decision is to raise, but how much? In this case, we know the beginner will likely come along for the ride but we also want the other players to fold. We would much rather play this hand against one person if we can. We also want to exercise some element of pot control because AK could easily miss and a continuation bet on the flop may not be as effective against the beginner. With the blinds at 25/50 and with another limper already in, I would raise to around 250. The button and blinds fold, the UTG beginner player calls and the middle position player folds. Perfect.

The Flop

The pot now has 625 and the flop comes . Then our opponent bets out 200:

Figure 2

This should be a good flop for us. He’d probably have raised pre-flop with AA or JJ and may have raised with AJ, so if he has us beat now it’s only with 44 or AJ. Based on the size of the bet, it’s most likely that he has a small piece of it. It’s enough to confidently proceed as if we have the best hand. Because of the flush draw, he would more likely have bet around the size of the pot with a set of 4’s or AJ. He could be betting on a flush draw, but most beginners with his tendencies would more likely check/call with a draw after facing a raise pre-flop. We can safely narrow his range to any Ace or a pair of Jacks (J8-KJ is most likely unless it’s suited).

Now, how do we extract the most from this situation? Pushing all-in at this point might scare him off so let’s eliminate that. Slow playing might be best against some players, but not against a beginner. Again, he’s not thinking about what we have. If he’s only thinking about the fact that he has a pair, he will likely call a raise. He’ll call thinking two things: 1. this guy is trying to push me around, 2. even if I’m beat now, I could catch another card to win.

So let’s raise. Based on the range we are putting him on, we know he’s likely drawing to anywhere between 3 and 5 outs (3 outs if he has an Ace with a smaller kicker and 5 outs if he has a pair of Jacks). In poker, we win if we can cause our opponents to make an incorrect decision. In this case, if he calls any raise it would be incorrect because he needs at least 8.17 – 1 odds. In this situation, I would raise to around 800. After his 200 bet and our raise, there will be 1,625 in the pot and it will cost him 600 to call giving him about 2.7-1 odds. Remember though, he is not thinking about odds; he’s thinking about how reasonable the bet size is to call and we want him to call the maximum.

The Turn

What Are Some Good Poker Hands Lyrics

The turn is a and the pot has 2,225. Our opponent immediately pushes all-in for his remaining 1,950:

Figure 3

Poker Best Hands In Order

Wow! How can we get away from this hand? Well, it’s not as hard as it seems. First, we are experienced enough that we aren’t getting attached to our hand, right? Okay, so forget the fact that we have top pair, top kicker. Let’s keep narrowing down our opponent’s range of hands. We know he most likely has A-rag or a pair of Jacks. In previous hands, our opponent has not shown aggression unless he has a big hand or hit a draw and he has just called with his marginal hands. Also, because he’s a beginner there is no reason that we should think he is running some sort of advanced bluff.

Taking that all into consideration, there is a high likelihood that he has sucked out and we are now beaten. His most likely holdings are A9, J9 and 99. We still have outs vs. A9 and J9 and we are drawing dead to 99. There is now 4,175 in the pot and it costs us 1,950 to call, giving us 2.15-1 odds. Clearly, we aren’t getting the right price to re-suck and we should fold. We fold, confident in our read and our opponent shows us for two-pair.

Conclusion

Next time you’re playing against a beginner; make the effort to observe their actions. It shouldn’t be difficult to get a read on them, because as we’ve shown in this lesson beginners have easy to recognize tendencies in their play. They won’t be making advanced plays on you, and what you see is what you get.

It’s very important to realize that they are not playing you; they are only playing their cards. Therefore you should play “ABC” poker against these players because they in turn won’t realize that you are running some advanced play on them. Be careful not to get caught up in fancy play syndrome. Beginners don’t think about what you are thinking or what hand you are representing – they just know that they have a pair and that could be good, so they will call any bet.

Good Poker Hand Crossword

If you remember this then you will make money against beginners in the long run.

Related Lessons

By Donovan Panone

Donovan started playing poker in 2004 and is an experienced tournament and cash game player who has a passion for teaching and helping others improve their game.

One Good Hand Poker

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