You pick up American Airlines/Pocket Rockets/Pocket Aces: AdAc You are in middle position with a couple callers in front of you. You raise. The reason you raise is because this falls into the Big Pair category and it doesn't do well against lots of opponents. If someone raised before you preflop, reraise them. There is nothing to fear yet.

One more person calls in back of you and the other players call making it four of you. The flop comes back: QdJd4h

The first person bets, on person calls and it is now your turn. The best move here is to raise and try to continue to limit the compeition. They could have anything at this point and reading hands is very hard at low limit. Most likely they either have a Q or a draw (straight or flush). If they do have a draw you want to make them pay as much as possible for it. You raise, the person in back of you folds and the other two people just call.

The turn is: 5 of hearts making it Queen of diamond, Jack of diamond, 4 of hearts, 5 of hearts

They check to you, you bet again and they call.

The river is a 6 of hearts making it Queen of diamond, Jack of diamond, 4 of hearts, 5 of hearts, 6 of hearts

They check to you, you bet and they both call, you win.

Using this example, there are other legitimate hands that could have been in there with you. For example if someone had KT they would have an open ended straight draw. If a 9 or an A came, you could be in trouble. Another good hand here would be having two diamonds like Kd9d. Notice that if another diamond came you would also be in trouble. If you had either of those hands, you would be drawing and trying to improve. You wouldn't want to pay too much money to see the next cards and you would hope everyone would stay in the hand.

We can interchange a number of hands for the AA and you would play it the same way. Some of these would be KK, AQ, KQ, QJ, etc. You would be playing the hand like what we mentioned above as a Big Pair.

What if we had 44 in the above example, that would now give us a set. The poor guy with the AA wouldn't know what hit him, same thing if we had our QJ, or JJ. These would be considered Milking Hands and you would do your best to extract the most best as possible. We already mentioned the drawing hands.

Now let's go over a list of hands. These hands are not from any book and they aren't supposed to be exact rankings of what is best. These are geared to low limit loose games and the point is to help you understand how you would play each and what you are hoping for, and what can beat you.

* AKs means AK of the same suite.

AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AK, JJ - These are premium hands and no matter what game you'll play you'll be happy to look down and see them. These fall into the category of Big Pairs and you'll raise and reraise with them preflop. AA doesn't have to worry about over cards hitting but when you have KK, QQ, and JJ you will often find yourself with an A on the board and you'll have to decide whether to continue. If lots of people are in, usually someone has the A. When you have AKs or AK, you'll raise and try to catch an A or K, or other draw on the board.

AQs, AQ, AJs, KQs, KJs, JTs - These are also quality hands. And even if someone raises before you'll, you will most likely play. A late position raise with these hands isn't a bad move. Whenever you are suited, you have a much better chance of winning, especially in low limit games where big hands win since so many people are in. Raising a hand like KQs if you are on the button and everyone is in is a great move since you have a good drawing hand (straights, flushes, big cards like a Q or K, etc). These hands pretty much play themselves but be careful for the occasional person who is tight and is only raising with AA or KK. You wouldn't want to bring AQ against one of those hands. This kind of read will be hard though so don't beat yourself up if occasionally you lose AQ to AK. One thing to note here before we go on to the lessor hands is that just because you have a good preflop hand doesn't mean that it is going to win. You're going to still fold a lot of hands after the flop since you won't improve much. With these hands though, when you do catch something it will be strong.

AJ, KQ, KJ, KTs, QTs, J9s, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22 - These hands are middle hands that you won't want to call with heads up against another raiser. You want more people in to justify them since you'll need good flops. If you have a small pair, you'll be looking to catch one on the flop. Don't chase it after though since the odds of you catching it are worse then 1/20. To catch another one of your pocket pair on the flop is about 1/8. When you have a hand like AJ, KQ, etc you'll be hoping to catch one of those cards and it be the highest on the board. If you have a hand like QTs, J9s, KTs, etc you'll be in there for a variety of hands such as straights, flushes, two pair, etc. Becareful though playing hands like J9s and catching merely a J or 9. Often times your kick won't be good and you'll lose to a hand like AJ.

89s, 78s, 67s, 56s, 45s, 34s - These hands are called suited connectors and they are similar to the hands above like J9s, QTs, etc. When you play these hands they are Draws. And if you remember from above that means that they favor lots of people in the pot and you like to play them "in the back" (late position). A great example would be to have 89s on the dealer button, the last position, and 5 people were already in before you (raise or not). You are getting great odds on this hand to play it. You are hoping to catch an openended straight draw, a flush draw, or even two pair. You can also run into hands like 889 on the flop when you have 78s, or you could even flop the nuts like this: 89s and the board is JT7. What you don't want to do is get caught up chasing down draws with these when the odds don't justify it. Also you don't want to play these against few opponents for more then a bet. For example a really bad way to play would be this: you have 89s and no one calls except one really tight old lady in front of you who raises. You call (bad move) and you end up heads up with her. The flop comes back Qs4d3d. You have nothing but a backdoor flush draw (meaning both cards have to hit, which is over 1/20 to do so). She bets, you call and go for it. The turn brings Qs4d3dAs. Now you think you may be lucky so you call again hoping to catch another spade (which is still worse then 1/4). You miss it and she wins since you have nothing. You played really poorly, going against the odds. Your 89s plays well against a lot of people so that the draw is worth while.

A5-ATs, A5-A2s, K9s-K5s, Q9s-Q5s, J8s, T8s, 97s, 86s, 75s, 64s, 53s, 42s - these are marginal at best hands. The only exception would be the ATs. It would probably be best if you avoided them at first until you become more comfortable in the game playing good hands. If the game is very loose though, with lots of people chasing the whole way to the river, these hands can be profitable. We play A5s and below and ATs and above because they both have ways to hit straights as well as the flushes. Notice that A6s can't make a straight using both cards. When you play this type of hand you really aren't looking for the A since your kicker will rarely be good. Instead you are looking for the straight, flush or two pair. Because they are such long shots you'll want lots and lots of bad players in the hand to justify the call preflop. The same goes for hands like K9s, T8s, etc. You'll play these hands in late position, when you see lots of people are in and it costs you very little. Don't get trapped though. If you play a hand like T8s and the flop comes back T high with no other draws for you it would be all right to just get out. There are to many cards that can come and beat you. You would much prefer to see a flush or straight draw.

Before continuing, how do the hands above fit into our three categories? Big Pair hands include things such as AA, KK, AK, QK, etc. Any situation where you have the top pair or over pair would be this. Drawing hands would include lots of hands above like suited connectors, small pairs, etc. Milking Hands really can be anything where you get hit hard on the flop and these would be two pair or better (three of a kind, sets, full houses, straights, etc).

POSITION : - Position plays a big role in poker, even in low limit. The reason last place, on the button, is so great is because you get to see what everyone else does before you. The best players play tight in the front and loose in the back. You wouldn't want to play some of the hands above in first position, "under the gun", but you would play them in the back. A good example of a hand like this would be T8s. In a really loose game with everyone in in front of you, you would play it. Also position changes how you play individual hands. You would play JTs anywhere in a really loose game but you might raise it in the back preflop just because it is the type of hand that does well against lots of players. So when you think of your starting hand selection, you want to play tighter in the front, and looser in the back. How tight and how loose will be up to you since you'll have to see the game before setting those guidelines.

BLINDS : - Playing out of the blinds is different since you are already in the hand some. You'll play looser here but not too loose and how loose or tight depends solely on how many people are in the hand. If you have a hand even as weak as 79 off suit in the big blind and everyone is in (a "family pot") with a raise then you would call. The reasoning behind this is that you are getting great odds for your money. This same approach is true across the game. The less money out there, the better hand you have to have since you aren't getting good odds. The more money in the pot the weaker your hand has to be to play since if you do win even a small percentage of the time you'll profit.

So know that we know a little about starting hands, how do we know how loose or tight to play in a game? That's a very hard question and the better you get the more you'll be in tune with the answer. There is no absolutes though and you will lose hands. What I'll try to explain here is how to size up a game as being a loose one that you'll get away with some lessor cards or a tight one where if you played those same hands too much you would get slaughtered. If you sit down at a game and see lots of people in preflop, even with a raise, then it is a pretty loose game. For example if you consistently see 4/5 or more people in before the flop then it is pretty average. If you see almost everyone in every hand and going all the way to the river then you have a really loose game. In contrast if you see a game where about 3 people are in preflop with a lot of raising then it is a pretty tight game and you probably will want to play something else. In very tight games you'll see one person raise and another person battle it out with them. In those games having four people in is a "family pot" while in a regular low limit game a family pot is only when everyone is in (all 9/10 players). That isn't as rare as you might imagine. When you are first starting out and you see that the game is very loose, it wouldn't be a bad idea to still stay away from hands like 57s, etc. You would still want to play KJs, QTs, JTs. If you can discipline yourself to only play those loose hands in the back (late position), then you would be playing ideally. Even a hand like A5s in the back is a great hand if everyone is in. So here are some general guidelines for how loose to play:

Average Game (4/5 people in the flop): play your premium pairs, small pairs, big cards and suited connectors. Very Loose Game (7+ people in the flop): play just about anything we mentioned above in the correct position. Wait for the flop to give you a really good hand or draw and then make them pay.

The key point here is to remember how loose your cards before the flop are depends on two things: your position and the amount of people in the hand before you. The more people in, the weaker your hand can be.