5 Poker Hands EVERYONE Messes Up (Fix This Now)

What's going on guys, Nathan here, and today I'm going to walk you through the five poker hands that everybody plays wrong. This might be costing you money at the poker table. Let's jump right into it. All right, guys. So in my 10 plus years as a professional poker player, having coached hundreds of students in small and mid stakes games, these are the five hands that I have consistently seen people screwing up, playing wrong and losing a ton of money with.

So I'm going to walk you through step-by-step example hands today to help you fix this mistake. Counting down from five to one. Here we go. Hand number five is Ace Jack suited. So guys, a lot of people tend to overvalue this hand, especially beginners and amateurs in my experience. And what they don't realize, guys, is that a hand like Ace Jack is a good hand. Don't get me wrong, but it cannot compete with the big boys, aka Ace King and Ace Queen.

And by the way, just because it's suited, a lot of people get hung up on that. It only adds roughly around 3% extra value to the hand, a fairly insignificant amount in the grand scheme of things. Let me give you an example to help illustrate this better for you. You call a raise preflop with ace jack of hearts. Again, nice hand, but we need to play this hand cautiously. Flop comes down with the ace of diamonds, 10 of spades, and four of clubs.

Guys, if you're up against any kind of decent, regular thinking opponent who is watching videos like this, and there is any kind of big action, say a raise and a re-raise on the flop, it is very likely that one of these players is representing a hand like ace-king or ace-queen. And if they have one of those hands, they have roughly 87% chance to win versus you, meaning you have just 13% chance to win. We don't need to be a math genius to understand that we don't win at poker when

the odds are so significantly not in our favor. Also, this is where board reading comes into play. We can't even beat ace-10 on this flop because ace-10 is two pair, and also there is no flush draw, so if there's any kind of big action, you can basically throw those hands out as well, meaning that it's more likely that they're representing some sort of big top pair, a two pair, or some sort of trips, maybe the hand like pocket 10s.

So guys, bottom line, how to play this hand. Play this hand cautiously. This hand can make an excellent bluff catcher, by the way. But in many situations like this, what you want to do is just check and call, as we're going to see with many of the hands on this list.

So let's move on to hand number four that everyone screws up these days, and that is pocket threes. So guys, I've made a literal career out of hands like this. I've actually made videos here on the channel talking about how to play your small baby pocket pairs like this optimally. You can go check those out. But these hands are absolutely amazing versus bad players, recreational players.

Is because if you can make trips or a full house, you can literally stack these players if they hit any kind of pair. This is literally how I've been able to make this game a career for me as a 10 plus year pro traveling the world full time for over 10 years now.

But the biggest mistake that most people make, guys, is they don't realize that when you don't hit your set, your three of a kind, which is going to happen, by the way, 88% of the time on the flop, you're only gonna hit your set 12% of the time. When you don't hit your set, guys, guys, most of the time you do need to just be check folding with this hand. So let me give you an example. Once again, you've got pocket threes,

two red threes and a fish calls. Okay. So totally different player type than we were just talking about. This is one of these recreational players. They don't fold anything. You've probably seen these kinds of player ties before. So flop comes down with the ace of hearts, two of spades and 10 of diamonds. Guys, you should check fold in this situation.

You don't want to be trying to shove the proverbial square peg through the round hole in a situation like this it won't work guys if they've got an ace if they've got a 10 if they've got pocket eights if they've got anything here at all they're going to call you and you're just going to be digging your own grave so guys bottom line with these baby pocket pairs like pocket twos pocket threes pocket fours if you do not hit your set on the flop you really

have to be cautious with this hand and honestly guys most of the time i'm just going to be checking and and folding to any kind of significant bet.

Understand that the value that these hands have, and they have tremendous value, but the value literally all comes from when you hit another three on the flop and make your very well-hidden set, and hopefully somebody has a hand like top pair and you can win an absolute massive pot as an overwhelming favorite. All right, let's move on to hand number three that everyone screws up these days, and that is ace three suited.

All right, guys, so we already talked talked about a big suited ace before ace jack suited. Let's talk about a smaller suited ace now. Ace three suited, guys, just like pocket threes, is a hand that has excellent nut potential. And what I mean by that is it can make a massive hand. For example, the nut flush, a good two pair or a straight. And by the way, when I say nuts in poker, that is just a slang term that we use for one of the best hands possible or the best hand possible.

If there's three more spades that come on the flop or by the turn or river, you will have the best, possible. Assuming that there's no straight flush possibilities, but a straight flush is exceedingly rare in poker. So you can almost throw that out the window most of the time. So guys in a game with deeper stacks, especially like no limit hold'em cash games or early on in tournaments, this hand has tremendous value because it has such tremendous potential to make an unbeatable hand.

But where a lot of amateurs go wrong once again is getting involved in a lot of sticky situations, getting involved in big pots when they only slightly hit the The flop, let's give you an example once again. You raise up ace, three of spades, and a tag calls you. Now, a tag is a tight and aggressive player type. I'm not going to go deep into all the player types in this video.

By the way, if you want to know exactly what hands to play, all five major poker player types in my entire strategy to crush these small and mid stakes games, you can just download a copy of my free poker cheat sheet. That'll be the top link in the description below. You can read it in an afternoon. And it'll tell you everything you need to know.

Well, let's get back to the hand here. flop comes down with the ace of hearts five of diamonds and jack of clubs so a lot of amateurs guys here like wow i got top pair this is amazing need to go crazy need to bet big no guys this is not the spot to be playing a big pot in fact in a situation like this you should just be check calling let me actually go through the player type just a little bit because i didn't really talk about that a tag titan aggressive

is a good player this is one of these regular players who's watching videos like this who takes the game seriously and often these are actually some of the biggest winners in small and mid stakes games so this player is not going to be screwing around guys this is not a fish who's in there with a hand like eight deuce or seven four just random nonsense this is a player who is going to have a decent hand most of the time hence the tight in their moniker so how do

you play this hand guys in a situation like this you should just be check calling this hand does actually make an excellent bluff catcher in a spot like this and versus an aggressive player like this I will very often just check this to them so that I can allow them to go bluff at it with a hand like a jack 10 or a pocket 8 or maybe just some sort of total air ball like a king queen for example so guys you want to look to flop big with a hand like this and don't play a big pot with just top

pair guys it's not why we play a hand like ace three suited we want to flop a nut flush draw we want to flop two pair we want to flop something really really big like this, and we want to play it cautiously if we just hit top pair.

Let's move on to hand number two that everybody plays wrong these days, and that is 7-6 suited. Guys, 7-6 suited is another hand that has massive potential in deep stack games if you can hit the right flip. This hand can make all sorts of well-hidden straights, trips, flushes, and so on. However, as with a lot of the hands on this list, a lot of amateurs get themselves into trouble is because they don't know how to hit the breaks when they only hit the flop in a small way.

Let's give you an example here where we do smash the flop. You have a hand like seven, six of diamonds and versus a tight and aggressive player. Once again, flop comes down with the eight of diamonds, five of spades and king of diamonds. Guys, this is the miracle flop. flop. This is the one you want to play a big pot. You might notice on your screen there, we are 57% to win, even if they have a hand as strong as top pair.

Good kicker with king queen, because we've literally flopped the world here.

We have 15 outs, and out in poker, by the way, is a card that can come on the turn or river to make you the best hand. And the reason why we have 15 outs is because we have both straight and flush draws on this board.

If it comes any diamond on the turn or river we would make a very strong hand in no limit texas hold'em which is called a flush we would also make the nut straight if it comes with a four or a nine on the turn or river so guys how to play this hand you want to look for big combo draw flops like this with deep stacks otherwise you typically want to be folding do not make the mistake of playing a huge pot if you just hit top pair with this hand guys

it's not why we play it let's move on to my number one hand that everyone Everyone plays wrong these days, and that is pocket queens. So guys, this is the only true premium hand on this list. Pocket queens is indeed

the third strongest hand in the entire game. But what a lot of people do not understand is that just because you get dealt pocket queens, it is not a license to print money. Guys, you need to understand that an ace or a king is going to flop 41% of the time when you have pocket queens. This is nearly a coin flip, so we need to just make peace with this. However, just because an ace or a king flops, it doesn't mean that our hand is no good.

I'm going to walk you through an example right now. You call a re-raise preflop with pocket queens. This is what we call a three-bet pot in poker, and this changes the ranges and the dynamics tremendously. Also, player type is incredibly important. and we're up against a knit in this hand.

This is the tightest player at the table. This is the kind of player who does not re-raise preflop without a very strong hand like ace-king, ace-queen, pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket queens, pocket jacks, another premium hand like that.

By the way, learning how to read board texture in three-bet pots in combination with player type is something that I talk about in extensive detail in my brand new Black Rain 79 Elite Poker Training University diversity, 17 plus hours of advanced poker training, hundreds of step-by-step example hands walking you through the advanced strategy to crush today's games, dozens and dozens of downloadable cheat sheets.

Enrollment is open right now. I'll include a link to that in the description below. But guys, let's analyze this hand a little bit deeper. Flop comes down with a King of Hearts, Jack of Diamonds, and Seven of Clubs. In a situation like this, you should just check call.

Remember, we put this player on a very tight range preflop because number one, This is a very tight poker player, and this is the kind of player who also tends to play very passively, meaning, guys, that they're not re-raising us pre-flop with some sort of crappy hand like an ace-deuce or a 10-8 or something like that. That's what recreational players do. That's not what this player type does, and therefore, we need to play this hand cautiously.

Now, as I mentioned before, guys, just because a king or an ace flops, it doesn't mean we should just fold right away every single time. So I will often make a call on the flop here. But if this player can continue to apply the pressure on the turn, guys, I'm often going to fold my hands because once again, this is all about understanding player types and ranges in this situation. And that's how you play your pocket queens in the most profitable manner.

I hope you enjoyed this poker podcast episode. If you want to know my complete strategy for beating small and mid stakes poker games, make sure you go grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet that's available on my website site at BlackRain79.com. And also make sure you hit like and subscribe here to the podcast as I'm putting out new episodes every single week to help you guys quickly get beating your poker games. I wish you guys all the best of the poker tables. I'll catch you next week.

This has been Nathan Williams with BlackRain79.com.