Kojak

by: Lou Krieger©

Kojak is the name poker players have given to the hold’em starting hand K-J. That’s probably because the “K” and the “J” look like a shorthand form of “Kojak,” but it might also have something to do with the fact that the late Telly Savalas — who played the tough, shaved-head-before-it-was-a-style-statement, Lt. Theo Kojak, who loved lollypops and the catch phrase, “Who loves ya, baby?" — was a skilled and dedicated poker player long before poker became the latest thing for the Hollywood set.

I played against Telly Savalas a few times at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles back in the '80s. 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.

Telly was a good poker player who appreciated having a hand named in his honor, 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. After all, you don’t need my advice to play a pair of aces or a 7-2. Those are no-brainers.

But K-J is a toughie regardless of whether you play it in fixed-limit or no-limit cash games, or in a tournament.

But before we delve into the specifics of Kojak — the poker hand, not the detective — it’s important to understand that this hand should sometimes be played for a raise, sometimes a call, and tossed directly into the muck on other occasions. Although K-J looks like a good hand, it can put you in a world of trouble. If I had to advise a complete stranger how to play K-J without knowing anything about the texture of the game or the players at the table; if I didn’t know whether it was a tournament, a cash game, or whether the betting structure was fixed-limit or no-limit, and had no idea what our hero’s position was in the betting order or whether anyone had yet raised or even called, I’d tell him to muck the hand.

K-J is 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.

K-J in a Fixed-Limit Game
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 capitalizing on every edge you have, small or large. When you realize that K-J whipsaws back and forth between being a raising hand and one that ought to be folded, it’s clearly the playing environment that determines what to do with it in a limit game.

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 reraise 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.

In early position in fixed-limit games I recommend folding K-J unless the game is very passive and play is characterized 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.

You can loosen up a bit in middle position 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 act, 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.

When you are 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 opponent 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 winnow down the field and get some dead money in the pot.

Dead money in the pot is an important concept in fixed-limit poker. If you begin with a family pot of five players, your hand might have a twenty- or thirty-percent 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 favored to win — suppose your chances increased from twenty percent to forty percent by virtue of raising and causing some of your opponents to fold — in the long run you’ve created a favorable situation for yourself. Dead money can never be won by the players who folded; 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.

K-J in a No-Limit Game
K-J is a very different hand when the betting structure is no-limit. While the theory of fixed-limit play is to exploit small edges time after time, it’s a horse of a different color in no-limit. In no-limit you don’t need to take untoward risks with a razor-thin edge. No-limit poker is predicated on implied odds — the amount of money you might win on subsequent betting rounds — and winning a player’s entire stack.

Because of the high reliance on implied odds, some hands go down in value because they tend not to flop very big, hidden hands — the kind that can surprise and trap an opponent — 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 that’s probably the best hand the vast majority of the time. But if you bet, who’s going to call?

No-limit players are wary of committing their entire stack of chips 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 anytime an ace or king flops in a fixed-limit game — I won’t have any difficulty releasing it in a no-limit betting structure.

But suppose I saw that same K-J-4 flop in a no-limit game when I have a pair of fours. That’s not a far-fetched possibility, either. While I’d throw away a pair of fours before the flop in a fixed-limit game because the potential pay-off is small compared to the odds again 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 fours 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 is lucky enough to make a full house on the turn or the river.