Upswing Poker -- Doug Polk On Slowplaying Big Pairs Preflop

Want to get better at poker? Tired of losing in your local home game or looking to go pro playing no-limit hold’em?

Who better to learn from then two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and high stakes cash game regular Doug Polk.

Polk has teemed up with fellow bracelet winner Ryan Fee to offer the Upswing Poker Lab

The Upswing Poker Lab is a poker training course taught by Polk and Fee that is updated regularly with in-depth learning modules, theory videos, and a wealth of information to make you a better poker player.

Upswing Poker has teamed up with Card Player to bring you some exclusive poker strategy content. In this video Polk discusses playing big pocket pairs preflop.

Polk talks about how to approach playing these hands before the flop comes out.

“When you have aces, kings or queens and someone opens you can either three-bet for value or flat, disguising your hand strength and hoping that somebody behind you decides to squeeze,” says Polk.

“In general I would advocate this: with kings and queens, don’t trap. Just re-raise. With those hands the flop will often hurt your hand. If you slow play those hands and there’s an ace on a flop the situation can get out of control. It’s a lot better for you if you three-bet a hand like queens and just get a fold than if you do three-bet with aces and get a fold. With aces you have playability on basically every single flop, and with queens it’s not really the same. On an ace or king high flop you are going to be in a much worse spot.”

An ace or a king will flop approximately 43 percent of the time when you hold pocket queens, and as a result of that Polk says that, “… it makes a lot of sense to deny your opponents equity by re-raising these hands. So ace-king, kings, queens, jacks, these are hands that should be fast-played. This will allow you to also bluff with some suited aces, some off-suit broadways or maybe some suited connectors like 9-8 suited.”

Check out the full video at the top of the story for more of Polk’s analysis of playing big pairs preflop.

Sign up for the Upswing Poker Lab today for step by step instructions and examples to master both the fundamental theories and situational exploits to greatly increase your skill and earnings.

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