Everyone who plays Texas Holdem knows that Ace-King is one of the very best starting hands. But, it is just that, a starting hand. It’s only 2 cards of a 7 card equation. In nearly every situation, you want to come out firing with A-K as your hole cards. (The exception would be when faced with a big raise from an early position bettor.) When the flop comes, you need to reassess your hand and think things through before you just assume your overcards are best.
Like many other situations in Texas Holdem, knowing your opponents will help you gauge your situation when you hold A-K and see a flop like 9-8-2. Since you bet preflop and were called, you assume your opponent is also holding good cards and the flop may have missed them as badly as it missed you. Your assumption will often times be correct, but they could be holding a pocket pair and be leading in the hand, or worse yet have pocket 9s, 8s, or 2s. Also, don’t forget that many poor players wouldn’t know good cards if they tripped over them and could have called with A-x and paired the board.
the vegas nightmare