Playing Kojak

I PLAYED AGAINST THE LATE TELLY

Savalas a few times at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles back in the 1980s. That was after Kojak went off the air (it ran between 1973 and 1978) and he was fond of the fact that his defining character’s name was appended to a poker hand; but he wasn’t all that fond of the hand itself. And you shouldn’t be either. K-J is a difficult hand to play, which is why it’s worth discussing. It’s certainly not an automatically playable hand like a pair of Aces, Kings, or Queens, nor a hand you’d fold every time. But, if I had to line up on one side of the ‘play/don’t play’ continuum – without good reason to the contrary – my default position for K-J is to throw it away. But just throwing away hands is never going to net you much profit, so it’s important to understand when this hand should sometimes be played for a raise, sometimes a call, and other occasions tossed directly into the muck.

FIXED LIMIT

Limit poker is predicated on betting whenever you have a small advantage, and repeating this time after time in order to grind out wins by capitalising on every edge you have. When you realise that K-J whipsaws back and forth between being a raising hand and one that ought to be folded, you can see that it’s mainly position that determines what to do with it in a limit game.

WHAT POSITION?

From early position in a fixed-limit game, K-J is a hand that might allow you to win a small pot but lose a big one, particularly when the game is aggressive and players raise frequently. If you don’t know your opponents, it’s good practice to credit them with a decent hand – probably one with an Ace and a good kicker (or better) – whenever they raise.

Playing K-J from early position, especially when you call rather than raise, leaves you vulnerable to an opponent’s raise. Even if you flop a King or a Jack, you can’t know for sure whether you have the best hand. When that’s the case, you’ll either have to call your opponent to find out, or try a speculative raise. That speculative raise might result in a re-raise that will leave you less sure of how your hand stacks up against your opponent’s than you were when you raised in the first place.

I recommend folding K-J unless the game is very passive and play is characterised by lots of callers and very few raises. Even then, you might not have the best hand if you call with K-J and attract a bevy of callers, but at least it’s not likely to cost you a bundle. I’d suggest raising with K-J rather than calling from early position in a passive, raise-free game in order to narrow the field. A raise can also help you project a strong hand to any opponent who might have considered calling if he could see the flop for just one bet. Nevertheless, your best bet is usually to fold K-J from early position.

In middle position, you can loosen up a bit because the chances of a raise are lessened. If no one has acted, you can raise and try to seize control of the pot right there. If others have called before you, you’ll have to think about the range and quality of hands they’ll call with from early position and determine whether you should fold, call, or raise with your K-J. If there’s an opener and a raiser in front of you, K-J ought to be tossed in the muck.

LAST CALL?

When you’re in the cut-off seat or on the button and no one has entered the pot, I suggest raising. If your raise eliminates one of the blinds you’ll only have to beat one opponent to win a pot that’s now seeded with another player’s dead money. You probably had the best hand before the flop and you’ll have position for the remainder of the hand too. You can also play creatively if your foe decides to take a stab at the pot with a weak hand.

If you’re in late position and a number of players in front of you have already called, you can call behind them. You might have the best hand. After all, if no one raised, the chances of your hand being dominated by A-K or A-J are slim, and if you flop either a Jack or a King you probably have top pair with the best kicker and you can bet if the action is checked around to you. You can also raise if someone else comes out betting. Raising will help whittle down the field and get some dead money in the pot.

Dead money in the pot is an important concept in fixedlimit poker. If you begin with a family pot of five players, your hand might have a 20% or 30% chance of winning. But if you raise and can eliminate three players, you will succeed in getting some dead money in the pot. Even if you are still not favoured to win (suppose your chances increased from 20% to 40% by causing some of your opponents to fold) in the long run you’ve created a favourable situation for yourself. The players who folded can never win dead money – it accrues to the remaining players in the pot. By eliminating players, your equity in the pot includes not only your bets and those of your opponent, but a portion of the dead money that remains in the pot when other players fold.

NO LIMIT

K-J is a very different hand when the betting structure is no-limit. The high reliance on implied odds means that some hands drop in value because they tend not to flop very big, hidden hands and enable you to win a big pot. After all, if you enter a pot with K-J and the flop is K-J-4, you’ll have two pair and probably the best hand the vast majority of the time. But if you bet, who’s going to call?

Solid no-limit players are wary of committing their entire stack to one-pair hands regardless of how strong a hand might appear. So if you make a very big wager with K-J and I have A-K – a hand I’ll probably play to the river any time an Ace or King flops in a limit game – I won’t have any difficulty releasing it in a no-limit structure.

But suppose I saw that same K-J-4 flop in a no-limit game when I have a pair of 4s. While I’d throw away a pair of 4s before the flop in a fixed-limit game because the potential pay-off is small compared to the odds against getting lucky on the flop, the sky-high implied odds in a no-limit game make this a playable hand. I can afford to play a pair of 4s even though I’ll have to release it on the flop the vast majority of the time. I’ll overcome the cost of all those folds because when I flop a set, I’ll have a strong, hidden hand. And if my opponent gets aggressive with two pair, I’m going to love it, unless, of course, he makes a full house on the turn or the river.

But my opponent will only improve on two pair 16.5% of the time, and to do that, he’ll have to commit himself to his hand all the way to the river. While the odds against building two pair into a full house are 5/1, I can manipulate my opponent’s pot odds just by making a big bet. I’ll offer him even money when the odds against completing his hand are much worse than that. In the long run, calling my bet will break him, and that’s exactly what I’m hoping for.

In a no-limit game, I’m in search of a hand and a flop that will induce an opponent to gamble for all his chips. Hands like K-J, which typically make one pair with a decent kicker, are not the kinds of hands to gamble one’s entire stack of chips on. You can win a smallish pot if the flop fits K-J, but most of the time you’ll probably have to avoid playing a big pot with that kind of hand. By now you’re wondering what I’ll do with a small pocket pair when I don’t flop a set. That’s easy. I’ll throw it away as soon as someone bets. I’ll gladly surrender my small pair a dozen times for a chance to win my opponent’s entire stack when I happen to get lucky.

A PAIR AND A DRAW

Occasionally you’ll have K-J suited and see a flop that contains a Jack or a King with the other two cards suited to yours. Now you can make a big, speculative bet. There’s a chance that top pair is the best hand, but even if it’s not you have nine additional outs to a flush along with three Jacks and two more Kings in the deck. This is the perfect time for a semi-bluff bet or raise. With all those outs, you’re an odds-on favourite to improve your hand, if improvement is even needed to win the pot.

While K-J is the same hand regardless of whether you’re playing fixed-limit or no-limit, it’s the betting structure and environment that defines the hand’s relative playability. Kojak is a good hand under the right circumstances in fixed-limit games, but in a no-limit game K-J is a hand that lends itself to winning small pots. Just remember to step out of the way most of the time when confronted by a big bet.