Pocket Jacks
There are a small number of hands that Hold’em players invariably say are hard to play. Ace-King is one of those hands. Players also mention small pocket pairs, but if you listen more often than not the hand that comes up will be Jack/Jack.
So just why are pocket jacks so hard to play?
First of all, a starting pair of jacks is a good hand. In most lists of best starting hands jacks rank fifth. [AA, KK, QQ, AKs, JJ]. The problem lies with what other players will call your raise with (you are raising with those jacks, right?). You know that players will play high cards and since you already have two of them in your hand, your callers are likely to hold some combination of aces, kings and queens. Now comes the flop, three of the remaining 50 unseen cards come out and 12 of them are not good for you (four aces, four kings and four queens). There is an 24% chance at least one overcard will come on the flop and you could quickly be second best with your two jacks.
Secondly, let’s say you get a good flop-three cards all cards smaller then your jacks; you have an overpair to the board. Now how much do you have to bet to get the AK or AQ or even KQ to fold and give you the pot? In a no-limit game you probably can win the pot right here but in limit hold’em you just get to put in one bet and the two big cards might call because you could be holding only big cards yourself or they figure they have some kind of pot odds to call.
Jacks are tricky but remember pocket jacks are a good starting hand. Jacks win 77%+ of the time against any random hand and 57% when up against AK. Even better if no ace or king hits the flop, you are 75% to win and a good player will laydown that AK to your bet.
Jacks should make you money but you will also be surprised how often you hear these words at the table: “I hate playing pocket jacks!”
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #70
