No matter what your skill level, high marginal hands like A-J, K-Q, K-J, Q-J and Q-T consistently cost poker players more money than any other
grouping of hands.
The question is not whether or not to play these hands; the question is how
to play them profitably.
In this two-part series, we’ll look at the first part of this equation: knowing the numbers
and knowing how much equity these hands really hold.
The premium hands make you the most money; the rags win/lose you the
least. Even if you don’t have a database full of stats to run reports from,
just take a second to think:
§ How much of your profits/losses do you feel come from AA and KK?
§ How much of your profits/losses do you feel come from 2-3 or 8-3?
§ How much of your profits/losses do you feel come from K-Q and A-J?
Unless you have a skewed view of your own game, or you’re playing an
extreme, radical style, your thoughts marked cards will be the same as
every serious online grinder’s results. Most of your profit in a hand vs.
hand comparison is almost always from AA, with KK usually being No. 2.
The smallest part of your losses/wins comes from hands such as 8-3; if you don’t play them, you can’t have wins or losses attributed to them.
The hands A-J, K-Q, K-J, Q-J and Q-T are going to be all over the board. Most players will see a split; some
will have large losses with one or two of these hands, while the other two
are break-even to large winnings.
Marginal hands are called marginal because they typically end at around
even. If you’re a winning player, your wins and losses with them should be
positive, but only by a marginal amount.
The five hands mentioned at the outset of this article are the very high end
of the full marginal range. As such, they should be the most profitable.
Unfortunately, they actually carry luminous contact lenses the most room
for error and serious loss.
As I like to do when defining any specific hand, or in this case multiple
hands, I’ll run the numbers to get a solid understanding of each hand’s
inherent equity. A hand’s true statistical value is always the foundation
on which to build any strategy.