Playing A Pair of 10's in Texas Holdem Poker

Which hand would you prefer if you were playing Texas Holdem, Ace-King or a pair of 10’s? Let’s start by saying you are in a low limit Holdem game and you are on the button. Which hand would you prefer? If you say a pair of 10’s it is understandable but Ace-King might be better.

In a low limit Holdem game you have nearly everyone in the pot. That pair of 10’s is just not going to hold up very often. Technically two 10’s are statistically better than AK but you are in a worse position far more often with two 10’s. This applies almost as much in No-Limit. Let’s look at some examples.

Let’s say you are playing online poker and you raised with your 10’s on the button. In Limit Holdem that raise is probably not going to drive many people out of the pot.

Let’s say you still have 5 or 6 people in the hand and the flop is Ace, 5, J. That flop is a disaster for your pair of 10’s. You may as well just fold right there. Let’s say though that you were holding AK. Now that flop has some real potential.

In No-Limit Holdem you can drive more people out of the hand with a bigger raise with the 10’s so they are more playable and you can protect them. Another big thing to remember if you are talking about a hand like 1010, JJ, or QQ is that they are tough hands to throw away. It is much easier to throw away an AK if you miss the flop than it is to throw away a pair.

More big hands are lost on 1010, JJ, and QQ because players just won’t throw the hands away when they are beat. The problem with the three hands listed above is that whenever an Ace or a King shows up your hand is in real danger. With AK if you get an Ace or a King to show up then your hand is probably the best at the table.

Let’s take another example from an online poker tournament. Let’s say you are deep into the tournament and at the final table. A pair of 10’s is going to look awfully good, but what if you have someone raise in front of you? Now how good do they look? The odds of going heads up with a pair of 10’s against AK has the 10’s a 57-43 percentage winner in the long run, but you run into more dangerous situations with the pair of 10’s.

Take this example where you are re-raised big, perhaps all-in, at the final table and you hold a pair of 10’s. There are four hands where you are a huge underdog, AA, KK, QQ, and JJ. If your opponent has AK we already gave the percentages, but if he has AK suited you are about a coin flip.

Try and keep some of these things in mind the next time you are faced with a big decision playing online Texas Holdem. A pair of 10’s is a nice hand, but it can also be a dangerous hand.

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