These are the only two hands with which you are willing to gamble pre-flop. Obviously you can be up against AA with your cowboys, but you can’t worry about that. They dominate a wide range of hands which other players will put a large chunk of cash in pre-flop. If you call every time someone goes all-in with these cards there is no way you can end up losing money.

So the real trick is how to get the most amount of money in the pot pre-flop. As a secondary aim, its nice to limit the field, but your odds of winning are so good, that even if 5 players are all willing to put $25 in with you, then although your odds of winning fall, the pot has become so huge this is still a great situation for you. The likelihood is that with multiple callers, their own hands will overlap and so your equity in the pot has risen with the extra calls.

There is no rule of thumb for getting money in the pot pre-flop. If the game has lots of raisers in it, I will normally check from early or middle position, and hope for a raise. If a raise comes you can then come over the top for a worthwhile amount of money, not just the blinds.

Post-flop, remember this is no limit and you just have a pair (I’m not going to talk about what to do if you hit a set or aces or kings – you know what to do with them!). In these games people do silly things, that’s why you’re playing here, so you have to accept you might be beaten right now. I will normally try to take control of the pot at this point, unless the flop is really scary. This means a middle size bet, high enough to make any draws a mistake, but not so much that you can’t walk away from the pot. If someone re-raises in a major way, you have to be prepared to fold. Note that I’m saying be prepared to fold. This is where the skill in poker comes in. There are a lot of players I play against that I would re-raise all in or call against. People who play good cards aggressively.

An example – I have AA and, after my medium sized pre-flop raise has been called, the flop comes K x x. A guy in early position, who I have a note for as being tight aggressive, puts in a medium size raise. Here I might go over the top, especially if no-one is to act after me. Why? If he had KK he would have gone for it pre-flop. He’s tight so he is unlikely to have K rag. Most likely he has AK, or KQs. But if he is a fish, he could have been playing Kx suited and I have no idea what he has so how can I call such a big bet? If you don’t have the nuts you need a reason to call, not a reason to fold.

If people are still with you on the turn and river, you have to slow down. You only have a pair. This is no foldem holdem. A single pair is probably not enough, even if it is an over-pair. Make an assessment as to how much is in the pot relative to how much you have left to call, and decide whether it is a bigger Mistake to call or to walk away.