Top 5 Commonly Misplayed Hands

17 Feb 2025

Intermediate

This material is for medium-skilled players

Today we're going to talk about five poker hands that everybody plays wrong. You need to fix this now. Some of these hands might be costing you money at the poker tables as well. And today I'm going to give you step by step example hands showing you exactly the correct way to play these hands, how to play them profitably. These are some of the top hands that my students in particular have problems with again and again. So let's jump right into it. Counting down from five to one. Here we go!

 ,  ,  , or  : it really doesn't matter what the suits are. This hand in particular is routinely overvalued by amateurs in particular. And basically what you need to know is that Ace Jack, whether it's suited or off suit, simply cannot compete with Ace King or Ace Queen. And this is where so many amateurs get themselves in trouble. 

Let me give you an example. You call a re-raise preflop with   and the flop comes down with the   . Unfortunately, in a spot like this, you have exactly 13% equity versus Ace King and equity is just a fancy term we use in poker for your odds of winning the hand. 

It’s clearly not very good odds, not the way to win at poker by putting all our money in the middle with a 13% chance. So the real lesson here is to be careful with a hand like this, because often if you're up against a competent player with a hand like Ace Jack and they want to play a big pot on an Ace High flop, there is a strong chance that they have one of these hands that have you in really bad shape. 

And it should be noticed on a board like this,   , we can't even beat   either or  , of course. So, guys, bottom line: play this hand cautiously. Just because you hit top pair with A-J, it doesn't mean it's party time. Shove all the money in the middle, go all in. That's what amateurs do. 

Let's move on to hand number four that everyone plays wrong these days, and that is  . I have literally made a career out of stacking bad players with a hand like pocket threes as a 10+ year professional poker player myself. But you must learn how to lay down this hand when it is unimproved. Let me give you a little bit of rough math here:

Not very good odds once again. And with a hand like pocket threes, the biggest problem with all of these baby pocket pairs is that when you do not hit your set, when you do not hit your three of a kind on the flop, these hands are largely worthless or at the very best. They put you in a lot of dicey situations where you don't really know where you're at. 

So, for example, you raise with  , and a fish calls you. So this is one of these recreational players who plays all sorts of crappy hands. They like to splash around a lot, call you down with anything. I'm sure you know the type. These are the players we make the money against. 

But anyways, the flop comes down with the   . What should you do in this spot, guys? You want to just check folds. Let's start off with the player type once again here and the board texture. What do we know about our fishy friends at the poker tables? Well, they love to play any hand with an ace in it. What's on this flop? Well, an ace, of course. So that's strike number one. 

Strike number two, as we know, we're up against the kind of player who doesn't fold anything:

• If they've got a ten, they're not folding;
• If they've got pocket eight, they're not folding. 

The real lesson here of how to play this hand is to understand that baby pocket pairs like pocket three are when they do not hit a set on the flop like we missed it. In this case, as we're going to miss our set 88% of the time when they have missed their three of a kind, they are largely useless. I'm not saying that you should just fold every single time they make a bet. 

But really, guys, you really just want to check and often fold to any kind of a big bet in a situation like this, especially when you're up against one of these recreational amateur poker players who you know is not folding anything. Save yourself some grief and heartache. Fold your hand and move on and pick a better spot. 

Hand number three that everybody plays wrong these days is ace four suited. So, guys, what you need to understand about a hand like  , for example, is that it has excellent nut potential. And what I mean by that is that it can make the nut flush in particular. And the nuts of anything in poker just means it's the best hand possible. 

When you have a suited ace like this, both cards are the same suit and you have the ace and you make a flush, you are going to have the best flush possible, barring the incredibly unlikely situation where somebody has a straight flush. So this hand can make the nut flush. It can make a solid two pair as well. If it comes with an   on the flop, for example. 

Also this hand can make the very well hidden wheel straight. If the flop comes   , we are going to make the wheel straight with ace four. So you raise it up preflop with   and a TAG calls you.

In a nutshell, a TAG stands for tight and aggressive player. This is one of the better poker player types you're going to encounter in today's games. They only play good hands and they are disciplined after the flop as well. So the flop comes down with the   . 

In a situation like this, you should check-call with your   . Now, why is this the case? Well, we have hit the top pair, which is good. But we need to remember that we're up against a sophisticated, intelligent, good poker player in this hand. And therefore, often if we bet in a situation like this, they're just going to fold all of their worst hands. 

It is really important to understand that with our baby suited aces here, we're not specifically looking to hit the top pair. It's great if we do, but it's not a situation where we're celebrating and we want to go all in now. So against good aggressive poker players, these make excellent hands to check and let them bluff at it, basically to induce an aggressive player to run a big bluff against you. 

So bottom line with your baby suited aces like an  ​​​​​​​ is you want to look to flop big. For example, a flush draw, two pairs, trips, something of the sort. You don't want to play in a big pot with the top pair. And that's why I'll often just check it when I hit the top pair. 

Let's move on to hand number two that everyone plays wrong these days, and that is seven six suited. So, guys, a hand like   indeed has massive potential in deep stack poker games. It can make all sorts of well-hidden straights, trips and flushes. Let me give you an example. You've got the  ​​​​​​​ versus a TAG. Once again, a tight and aggressive player. And the flop comes with the   .

In a spot like this, we have literally flopped the world: we have both a flush draw and a straight draw. We can catch any of the nine remaining diamonds in the deck on the turn river to make the best hand. Or we can catch any four on the turn river. There are four remaining fours in the deck, or we can catch any nine on the turn river to make the straight. And there were also four remaining nines in the deck. So what does this all add up to? 

It means we are actually a favorite, even if they have a hand as strong as top pair with a hand like King Queen. When you play suited connectors like this, you want to look for big combo draw flops like this, especially when the stacks are deep. You do not want to be playing big pots when you just hit the top pair, just like we just talked about with our  ​​​​​​​ . 

And if you only just hit the top pair, you want to play it cautiously and just check and control the size of the pot. But in a situation like this where I hit a monster flop, I am often going to be check raising in a situation like this and looking to play a big pot. 

The number one hand that everybody plays wrong these days is pocket queens. Yes, rather surprising, since this is the third strongest hand in Texas Hold'em. But guys, what you need to understand about pocket queens is that it is not a license to print money. 

For example, you call a re-raise preflop with the   versus a nit. And now that is very, very crucial to the hand. A nit is the tightest player at the poker table, often sometimes called a rock as well. These players are basically sitting in a corner, mute half the time because they're sitting around waiting for pocket aces, pocket kings, ace king, the strongest hands possible. 

So we do need to respect this player when they re-raise us preflop. We also need to give them a little bit more respect when the flop comes down with the   . In a situation like this, you should check call. 

I'm not willing to relinquish my pocket queens yet, but we should realize that versus this player's range, this is literally a disaster flop. Remember, we just talked about the hand that they're likely to re-raise us with preflop. Pocket aces has us absolutely crushed on this board. Pocket kings has us literally almost drawing dead because pocket kings, of course, has hit top set on this flop. Ace king, of course, has flopped top pair on this flop and has us in really bad shape. 

Crucially, we can't even beat pocket jacks now either because pocket jacks also hit a set on this flop. This is a disaster spot versus a net with pocket queens. Once again, I'll often still make a call here on the flop just because pocket queens is such a strong hand. But if this player type continues pressuring me on the turn or river and I have not hit a queen, I'm often going to be laying my hand down. 

Sadly, they are going to hit it sometimes, and especially when you're up against one of these tighter poker player types, the nit or the rock, you need to be extra cautious in a situation like this. Sometimes the better part of a winning poker strategy is simply knowing when to fold. Thanks a lot for reading, we will catch you next time.