October 19, 2010
Slick Play
In Texas hold em online poker, Big Slick is a hand made up of an Ace+ King, the two highest ranked cards in the deck. It’s considered a strong hand because it can produce the highest pair with best kicker. It can also finish as the best straight or flush if the board shapes up to those types of hands.
Although Big Slick is a good starter poker hand, there are definite strategies for playing it and cautions to remember as well. It is not uncommon to see players with Big Slick shove all their chips in pre-flop to intimidate the rest of the table into folding. There is some sound logic to this because if anyone calls with a lesser pair, it is basically a coin flip situation with Big Slick only a slight underdog to win.
Raising with Big Slick offers fold equity potential since you might scoop the pot right away. The down side though is that Big Slick is still a drawing hand dependent on the flop.
Big Slick shrivels against pocket Aces and is a slightly better underdog to pocket Kings. Shoving an all-in bet pre-flop with Big Slick is risky since it is a drawing hand just like any connectors with the exception that it can complete to best pair, best kicker.
To leverage Big Slick’s fold equity, use these strategies at Everest Poker:
* Do raise against tight players but do not put all your chips at risk.
* Size the raise so it is big enough to force folding by other players.
* If your raise is re-raised, consider whether you are up against A-A, K-K or other pocket faces, which are the most likely types of hands to call this - in which case it’s a coin flip situation. Proceed with caution depending on what you know about your opponent.
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