TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY, THE POWER OF POSITION

Good starting hand selection has always been the trait among successful poker players. They know what hands to play and in what position and situations those hands can be played. This is the reason some players succeed when raising with junk from late position while others miss out on opportunities to steal and fold.
Although many argue that the toughest hand to play is pocket jacks, one of my co-workers surprised me with his convincing argument that it was in fact K-Q. It took me a second to understand his infatuation with the hand and I'm sure it stems from a latest bad beat, but really, when a player sees two paint cards, the desire to play the hand increases.
Let's take the hand as if we were dealt it in each position, but know that in each spot, I'm advocating a raise to open this pot. Calling here will only show weakness and will beg your opponents to raise. Will you call a reraise with K-Q? I wouldn't advocate it.
In early position, most people would argue that this is a clear fold. Playing K-Q here is a mistake. Most of the time, if anyone calls (or even raises), you're either dominated, or at best a 40-60 facing an A-x type of hand. The best hand that you'd hope would call you would be a K-J type, in which you are dominating, and unless you're facing a loose opponent, I wouldn't expect a call here with that range of hand. On top of all of this, if you do head to a flop, you're out of position and in trouble unless one of the blinds is the only caller. Needless to say, this decision should be an easy one, but if you decide to raise here, the best you can hope for is the rest of the table folding down.
In middle position is where some gray area starts to form. As I mentioned above, anyone that calls you will have a better hand, but at this point, there are less obstacles standing in your way. Instead of eight players left to act, you're probably looking at four or five. Then our good friend position comes into play. If you do get a caller, there's a better chance that you could be in position for the rest of the hand, which is always beneficial.
Unfortunately, I can't give you an answer on K-Q from middle position. This is one of those hands that you need to take everything intro consideration before acting. I've recommended that you ask yourself these questions in the past, but if you forgot, here are a couple: Are the players from your position until the button aggressive? What's your image? Can they see right through this raise? Will you call their reraise if they decide to act in that fashion? What about the blinds? Will they defend? Will they reraise? Understanding all the characteristics of the players still left to act will lead you to the right answer in this spot.
In late position, I can't see how you aren't raising here. With a hand like K-Q, raising in late position is almost mandatory. In fact, raising with a huge range of hands is advisable here! Pressuring the blinds is important and even if you get a caller, you aren't necessarily behind anymore. Blinds could call with a suited connector or even a small pair in which you'd be a coin flip. There's always the possibility that someone left to act is holding A-K, A-Q or a big pocket pair, but that's poker and you'll need to act accordingly after they make their decision.
Calling a reraise in this spot isn't awful if you're in position, but if the button decides to reraise, it's time to get out of the way if you think he's got you beat, or re-reraise if you think he's making a move.
Then come the blinds. If you're in the small blind and there's been no action ahead of you, raise it up and take the pot. If you're in the big blind and there's been a limp ahead of you, raise it up. However, if you're in the big blind and a player in late position has raised, what do you do? Do you call and hope your hand isn't dominated or do you fold? Usually, I'm learning toward a call here, depending on the player that's doing the raising. If I miss the flop, but I think my opponent did as well, I'll take a stab at it. If I know that my opponent hit, I'll check/fold.
Think about what you would do in this situation. You're in late position and you make a standard raise with K-Q. The button decides to call and the blinds fold. The flop is Q-8-3. Now what? If you're going to bet, how much should you bet? If you check, what's your action when your opponent bets?
Walking through the rest of the hand, here's what happened:
Hero bets half the pot and the button calls. The turn is a 5 and once again our hero thinks he's ahead and bets out. This time, he's reraised. Hero thinks and can't imagine that his opponent would call the flop with pocket fives. Placing his opponent on a hand is very difficult here, but hero makes a mistake and puts his opponent on J-J, a hand that he can beat. Hero decides that if his opponent is willing to risk all his chips with second pair, then so be it, and he shoves all-in. The button thinks and calls off his chips with A-Q.
How was hero to know that he was dominated? What can a player do to understand that top pair with a king kicker isn't good enough? If anything, I think the button's reraise in this spot should've sent a message, but that's not guaranteed. If the button had pocket 10s or 9s, could he have made the same move? Everything needs to be put into context and hopefully the next time our hero sees this player at the table, he'll know that he's capable of calling with A-Q and trapping. It's a tough hand to play, but I'm interested in what you have to think. How do you play K-Q in this spot? Leave some comments.

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