Poker Muck Hand
- Choose Settings then Poker. Select Automatically muck hands. To use this feature while in a game, when you're dealt into a hand, click on either pocket card. This will mark the card(s) you wish to show and they will overlap. When you are last required to take action and you want to fold, you can then click on Fold Show to show your folded hand.
- These are standard hand rankings for most poker games and apply to all high-hand poker variations including Texas Hold'em, Omaha and Stud. You'll find a printable poker hand rankings chart below the hand rankings as well as answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about poker hands and poker hand ranking.
'Poker's tough.' I've heard that line - and said it myself - more times than I can count.
Standard poker rules dictate that you must show your hand if you win, but you don’t have to show your hand if you lose. However, at many competitive tournaments, all players in an all-in situation typically need to show their cards. You must show your cards if you win, but don’t need to if you lose. But there are different rules in place.
The truth of it is never more obvious than while watching beginners lose pots with the top five trouble hands.
Some hands are just simply harder for rookies to play than others.
The following poker hands are trouble for beginners and pros alike.
The big difference is that professionals are able to fold these hands much quicker, without investing much into the pot.
5 Major Trouble Hands for Poker Beginners
5) Ace-Jack
To everyone who is still in the learning-to-intermediate stages of poker, I have some solid advice for you: Ace-jack is not a premium hand.
In fact, it's not really even a good hand. I know it looks spiffy when you peel back your two off the felt (or see it in a million psychedelic colors), but you're going to have to trust me.
Unless you're heads-up you have to treat A-J the same as A-T rather than playing it as if it's A-K.
4) King-Ten
Above all other potential candidates, king-ten has been awarded the title of 'sucker's hand.' If you're holding this hand, there are significantly more boards that will give you the second nuts or a bad beat than boards that will win you the pot.
Poker Muck Your Hand
If you don't flop broadway, you're in a rough spot. Flopping top pair of kings will almost certainly pit you against a king with a higher kicker. Flopping a pair of tens is rarely the top pair, and if it's not, you have straights to look out for.
Flopping two pair again puts you at risk against a straight, and you're going to run into more two pair-versus-sets scenarios with this hand, because people are playing all the pocket tens and pocket kings they're dealt.
3) King-Jack
Like king-ten, but a little less dangerous. The reduced risk, comparatively speaking, gives this hand the appearance of being more powerful than it really is.
Again, if you flop two pair, you're going to have to watch out for sets, and you still have to worry about kicker problems on one pair.
Poker Muck Hand
This hand is better left in the muck than overplayed.
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2) Pocket Jacks
The second-most-overplayed hand in poker. Pocket jacks is a top five hand and is a powerhouse compared to almost any random hand you can be dealt.
But if you raise it pre-flop, the only hands that ever call you are far ahead, or a coin flip (excluding the odd lower pair).
Played properly, this can be a very profitable hand. Overplayed (as amateurs tend to do), it will cost you a large percentage of your roll. No matter how strong your hand is before the flop, after the flop (unless you hit your set) you only have one pair.
Related Reading:
1) Ace-Queen
Ace-queen is the biggest trouble hand for beginners and amateurs alike. I don't have enough fingers to count the amount of times I've given away my money on a big click with big chick.
I won't rehash my advice on how to play A-Q again here. Instead, I recommend you head over to the ace-queen series and give it a read. It just might save you some serious coin.
Related Reading:
If You Think You're Best, You Probably Are
These five hands obviously don't cover every sticky situation a beginner is liable to encounter at the felt. I'm not saying you shouldn't play these hands, but play them with due diligence.
For a beginner the one rule you should never forget is 'If you think you're beat in a hand, you probably are.'
Related Beginner Poker Strategy Articles
- 4 instructional tournament hands in our Online Poker Tournament Tricks (2020 edition with Jesper Hougaard)