I Don't Need a Job

Ask most professional poker players about folding pocket Kings preflop in cash games and they will give you a one work answer: “Don’t!” I think this is too much of a generalised rule though. Professionals are used to playing with aggressive players that will 4-bet light preflop, and may shove all in with QQ or AK. However, in nitty low-stakes full ring cash games, I very rarely see anything worse than KK all in preflop from a full 100 BB stack, and often when one player has KK, the other has AA. This type of very nitty behaviour is indicitative of solid, mulitabling regular nits in full ring games. Substitute the nit for a donkey or change the game to 6 max, then the poker players old adage of never folding KK preflop may be true.

There are times I have folded KK preflop in 10 man low stakes online games. Every time I have done it, it is because I have nitty stats on the player (virtually never raises) and I have encountered the dreaded min 4 bet. So far, the min 4 bet has shown a 100% reliability for me in these low stakes games. What in effect these players are saying with the min 4 bet is “Please don’t fold, I have AA and if it’s alright with you I’d like you to give me your stack with your underpair.” I expect to get abuse from fellow poker players about folding KK preflop in cash games. However, every time I have either pushed all in preflop, or folded and seen the 4 bettor race with a shortstack, they have tabled aces.

What I am trying to emphasize is that poker is very situational and that in typical nitty low stakes cash games, it can often be profitable to fold KK preflop in very specific situations.Call me a complete weak nit, but next time I get 4 bet in a full ring game by a nitty regular that only raises 2% of his hands, I know where my KK belongs – in the muck!

One Response

1. Carbon Poker Players- February 19th, 2009 at 8:20 am

   Top notch blog, thanx for the info.

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