Time to talk sucker hands in no-limit hold ’em.
Time to talk knowing rags from riches.
Time to talk K-Q.
“If you catch a K high or a Q high, a lot of times you don’t know where you’re at with a hand,” said T.J. Cloutier, a longtime road gambler and former Canadian Football League tight end. “Someone might have an ace kicker.”
This is different from playing K-Q in a limit hold ’em game.
“Limit is a big-card game,” said Cloutier, winner of five gold World Series of Poker bracelets. “You want to play them there. You’re not going to lose your stack in limit. You lose a bet or two. Big difference.”
Sucker hand
King of hearts
Queen of spades
You want to play K-Q in online limit games the way a lot of people do, fine. But in no-limit, it’s a sucker play.
“A-Q might be a bigger one because A-Q can take a little more heat because it has an A in it,” said “Miami” John Cernuto, winner of the 2003 World Heads-Up Poker Championship. “A lot of times it’s up against A-K. A lot of players, especially new players, go broke with A-Q, and the A-K isn’t afraid of anything. They turn them over and now the A-Q looks like a rag.”
In that scenario, the only way you’re going to win is to catch a Q and hope the other guy doesn’t catch a K. Bad odds there.
“You’re a big dog,” said Cernuto, a former air traffic controller who took to pro poker after then-President Reagan fired striking controllers in the early 1980s. “The people on TV make it sound like it’s close, but it’s not close. I don’t know the exact numbers. There’s 13 cards of each suit and you’ve only got three cards out of 52 that are going to help you. The other guy has the other 49.”
So, if that’s how bad off you are with A-Q, then K-Q can only be worse.
“The big raising hands besides big pairs are A-K and A-Q,” said Cernuto, winner of three WSOP bracelets. “A lot of people raise with those cards. So to call with K-Q, even suited, is bad because a lot of times you’re not going to make that flush. You’re going to flop the K or the Q more times than you’re going to flop three spades, say. What you’re going to find yourself doing is paying off A-K or A-Q.”
What it comes down to is the discipline to fold. That’s what you don’t see on TV. The pros might fold up to 80 percent of their hands because the more hands you play, the more likely you’re losing money.
Of course, there’s still a chance you’re up against 10-10 or J-J and you catch a K. The other guy checks because the K is an overcard, and you can pick up the pot.
“But what’s going to happen is,” Cernuto said, “you’re going to win the little ones and lose the big ones.”
Poker lingo
Overcard: A card higher than any in your or your opponent’s hand.
A rag: A bad card.
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srosenbloom@tribune.com
