Dominated Hands
If you get all your money in the pot with AK and your opponent turns over AA, you are in deep trouble. You need two kings to win or perhaps QJ10 for the straight or perhaps a long shot flush. Dominated hands are those that are way behind like AK to AA. The most common usage of the term is attached to the situation where the two hands hold a common card and the other card is said to be “covered.”
So, AK dominates AQ and AJ and, in fact, any Ax hand except the dreaded AA. When the AK takes on AQ; the dominated AQ needs one of three queens or a very specific KJ10 for the straight. As a general statistical rule a dominated hand like this is about 4 to 1 to lose.
This is why caution is always a wise rule when your easily dominated hand is reraised after you put in an initial raise. By easily dominated we mean those hands that play well in a called pot but are often behind against the obvious “other” big hands. For example: King-Queen is a good starting hand but is dominated by AA, KK, QQ but more importantly AK and AQ both very common starting hands that will reraise you pre-flop and have you dominated.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #144
