definition of semi strong hand

[foofighter]

In the course of reading number Poker publications and postings in online forums the term "semi-strong hand" is frequently encountered. I was a somewhat literal person so I like to be able to associate definite values with terms that imply such. Could someone please give me a range of hands that is generally considered to be "semi-strong" hands?
Thanks for your replies pertaining to this subjective terminology.

[PokeYourFace]

pre flop or post flop? and what position?

[Rellik419]

Yeah, to vague a question to give a decent answer. Little more info, please.

[WILD]

In terms of preflop hands, I would consider QJ, Q10, and J10 semi-strong.

[UrsuuL]

pre flop a semi strong hand is something like KJ KQ ... a pair of Queens... A10.. ofcourse all suited..

[panther]

Assuming you're in a tourney, semi-strong hands changes with position, stack, stages of tourney. The least you can do is tell us preflop postflop.

[abwil2]

Ive never heard that used that way. Ive always heard marginal hands, hands like KQ,KJ, A10,A9,QJ,Q10 and so on. They are semi strong but in freerolls WAY overplayed like they are strong.

[kingkowboys]

JJ-99,AQs-ATs,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,AQo-ATo,KTo+,QTo+,JTo

These are all semi-strong hands. The bottom or the range is obviously not as strong as the top, but I would consider all to be at least a step above marginal. Marginal being hands that aren't trash but less that what i just gave.

[wlmartin]

There are Categories of hands if you prefer

Cat 1 : AA, KK,
Cat 2 : AK, QQ, JJ
Thse are your strong hands

Cat 3 : 99, TT, AQ
Cat 4 : AJs, KQs, 77, 88
These are your semi strong hands

Anything else between absolute trash and these is probably medium (your suited connectors above a 9 for example)

It is right what was said, it varies from position

AQ is a very strong hand once you have people limping or folding behind you, you have more chance that those in front have poorer hands.

AQ UTG is a lot worse off because someone could easily have better cards in front of you and re-raise you.

You have to know that then only hands you should be re-raing with are Cat 1 and perhaps depending on position Cat 2.
If you are calling a raise with Cat 3 and 4, thats ok but just because you bet, your opponent raises that it is ok to re-raise back at him just because you have a Cat 3 or 4 Hand like AQ. If he is raising there is the chance that he has you beat and poker is about playing odds and you want to make sure you have your money in the middle when you have the best of it.

It could be a bluff, of course but no-one got knocked out on a hand by laying down vs a bluff... getting your legs cut out by going at the bluff is a different story.

If you do have Cat 3 or Cat 4 hands and hit a raise, if you feel it is OK to call it (perhaps you have a strong stack or good position) but most of the time if you go over the top you are taking a risk.

Also, if you do call a re-raise, if he is a good player and isnt trying for a trap (which most people dont all the time regardless of what you see on WPT games on TV) his C-Bets will give you all the information you need and if you go in AQ with the hand and the flop comes up AQ, you have a very strong hand. If it comes up with an Ace or another queen you are still at risk from KK or AA but aside from draws thats all. If it comes up with nothing you can (and should) get off it if you get action.

If it comes up with nothing get off the hand.. i say this again because it is the one mistake new players make. They think AK is the bees knees and because it is one of the top ranked cards to have they get excited and because they are 2 overcards but no made hand they get excited. They think they are still ahead when really a pair of 2s has them beat!

My advise is the same as the advise i use and believe to be the strongest way to play the game.
Play tight, folding non premium hands and when you do get one, go at it strong. Don't try and trap or give free cards.

Let me show you an extreme yet prime example of how hands can get shutdown by giving away cards

You have AK
Your opponent has 77

Board comes AA6
You have a 3 of a kind and your opponent has only a has two pair.

You decide to trap and don't bet. Your opponent feels you didn't hit the Aces or have an underpair so he takes a free check just to be safe.

The turn comes up 7, he now has you beat since his 7s fill up with your ace.
You dont realize what he hit and bet at him. If he is smart he will call and take some more money from you on the river or if he isnt smart he might decide to put you all in there and then, either way you are beat.

Now, if you had bet the hand strong at the beginning, he would have put you on a better pair than his or worst still one of the As and folded which is what you wanted in the end.

The end result of any strong hand you have is either
a) Get value out of the hand so that when your opponent does bail out or lose at showdown, you have built the pot up quite high
b) Put your opponent to a decision so that he doesnt stay in the hand to try drawing out his flush or straight on you

In a lot of cases this style on a drawing board encourages a call and then when no help on the turn either another call or a fold. Either way, from a pure odds point of view, someone drawing to a straight or a flush is dead to your made hand. (NOTE: If they have draws to a straight AND a flush, you could be behind ie 7h 6h with 5h 4h Kd board)

Some people think that they lose just by chance, they went into the flop a lot but their cards didnt match with the board and they got unlucky because the times they could have had something their opponent bet at them either making them fold too early or pay too much to see the draw turn into nothing.

Fact is, if you are entering the pot with speculative hands (low pairs, suited connectors) whilst sometimes they will pay off, most of the time you are beat and its best only to go into pots when you have good position or less opponents so that if you can turn it into something you have better odds you arent beat by something else or that your draw turns into a weak pair that beats your opponents weaker one.

If you play tight and play right, you should only be in the hand with strong starting 2 cards. By doing that you will find your decisions easy to make. You either make something strong straight away (Top 2 Pair with AK and AK3 on the board) or you are behing (JJ with QK3 on the board) and using your skill and reads to determine if you can make the right pay or in the case of a bad hand get away from it are the difference between good players and those that place constantly large field high payout events.

[cssml609]

any hand can be semi strong post flop. if you have 2 3 and a 2 and a 3 flops, its not really all that strong but it is not weak.