This time on hand of the week I decided to write about how to play suited broadway cards in heads-up hyper-turbo tournaments. I chose King-Ten suited (KTs) as an example of a suited broadway hand. The fact that makes KTs interesting is its’ playability. Last time my analysis focused on playing from the position (small blind) and this time I chose to analyze out-of-the-position (big blind) play.
Broadway refers to cards that make up ace-high straight. Thereby broadway cards are an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, or Ten
I use a mixed strategy when I play KTs from out of position. I change my strategy repeatedly between calling, raising (non-all-in) and raise-shoving (all-in). KTs is a reasonable hand to 3bet-shove because it blocks other value hands such as AK, AT, KK, TT, and KQ. If you get called, you usually have good equity – for example against Ax hands. I also like to raise KTs (2,5x the original bet) because it has good playability post-flop. KTs connects well with various board textures. Furthermore, the connectivity and suit make it possible for us to continue betting on future streets.
An example: The first hand of heads-up hyper-turbo tournament. Blinds are $10/$20 and the villain bets to $40 from the button and we have K♣T♣ in our hand. We raise to $100 (2,5x) and the villain calls our raise. The flop comes Q♣8♠2♦ and we make a standard 30% bet ($75) and the villain calls.
Now let’s think about our strategy from here on. Our continuation bet is self-explanatory and we will do it 100% of the time on this board texture. When the villain calls, he usually has something, usually weak Queen because we block JT, T8, T9 and, KQ. What makes this situation interesting is that we can continue barreling on almost every possible turn card. We can make a continuation bet on clubs, Jacks, Nines, Aces, Kings and Tens. All in all, roughly half of the cards in the deck will help us and we can put heavy pressure on our villain in future streets.
What Is the Most Profitable Way to Play Suited Broadway Cards?
It is hard to say what is the most profitable way to play suited broadway cards such as KTs. My action is based on the circumstances of the game. I’m always focusing on the game flow. If I have been overly aggressive lately then I expect my opponent to punish me for this at some point. In this case, I would probably just call preflop and trap my opponent.
On the other hand, if my opponent has been very active and I have played passively, I would choose to raise him (2,5x). In the end, there isn’t a wrong way to play a suited broadway hand like King-Ten suited (except folding!). In fact, my opinion is to use all three options because then you can balance your ranges, and make your strategy harder to exploit.
