Every time I sit and play a tournament, I see at least one person overplaying these hands. Many of them are hands that on the surface look like good solid hands to play, but many times people overplay them to the point that they are knocked out of the tournament. This doesn’t mean fold them every single time, but be a bit wary when you play them. Some of them are more dangerous than others, and some of them I rarely play, but for me these are the biggest culprits and the ones I constantly see being overplayed.

I am sure people have different views on what hands are overplayed, but this is the list I came up with one night after playing a bunch of MTTs. I focused on tournaments, since cash games are set up with small blinds relative to the money in play, so you can get a bit more creative. It also should be noted that just about any hand can be played when short stacked late in a tourney, particularly when pushing in late position to get the blinds.

I play at all levels from the $4.40 180 man SNGs on PokerStars up to the occasional $100 rebuy tournament. I can only start playing at 8-9pm, so I usually end up playing at least one lower buy-in tourney a night for less than $20, since there are only so many tournaments offered at that time. I treat these tourneys very differently from the higher level buy-ins, since people just can’t get away from hands and usually end up overplaying them. Even in the higher buy-in tournaments, you see people who overplay hands, and I am sure everyone does it at some point. The best hands can be beaten with the right flop, turn, and river, but some hands that look good are often doomed from the beginning. Playing these hands more carefully in the future will improve your play.

In increasing order:

10. Small Pocket Pairs 66, 55, 44, 33, 22 – I don’t see this that often, but these hands are so easily dominated that they are only good when you are looking to hit a set early or with a big stack. I might push with them late in a tourney, but I have to be extremely desperate or have a perfect read on someone to be pushing with these, since you are almost guaranteed to be in a race and many times dominated by someone calling you.

9. QQ – This is a hand that many would not think of as being overplayed, and most of time it is played correctly, but often when it’s early in a tournament, people get way too involved with this hand. Most of the time at the lower buy-ins, you may be able to assume you have the best hand with your opponents range of hands being larger, but it still may be prudent to keep the pot small and try to go up against one person. Early on, you don’t want to build a huge pot against someone only to see an A high flop or get all in and lose to some donk playing A5o. Quite frankly, QQ isn’t all that great early on, since usually the only people who should get into a big pot have AA, KK, or AK. Post-flop you have to worry about the tricky hands, so in general it makes sense to keep the pot small early on with QQ. You can gamble with it a bit early, but too many times I see the QQ turn up only to be dominated by KK or AA. Late in tourneys when the blinds escalate, QQ becomes more of a dominant hand in picking up nice pots.

6-8. 99,88,77 – In decreasing order. These are mainly overplayed early in tournaments with people raising or opening up pots. If you hit your set it’s great, but I am looking to get into a flop cheaply with these in the early part of tournaments, trying to hit the set. I rarely look to take a hand down pre-flop with them early unless I sense weakness. With pocket 9’s, you are going to see at least one overcard hit the flop 80% of the time! So unless you know you can outplay your opponent or have incentive to play them, you must realize that most likely you will see a scary flop. Late in tournaments, I also see people playing these mid pocket pairs as though they can take on anything. Of course you can get people to fold, but all too often in low level tournaments, I see people calling with all kinds of junk, and most of the time you are at best in a race and sometimes dominated. If I play these hands late, I am most likely short-stacked and pushing. I will rarely ever call off all my chips with these hands, since I really don’t want to race.

5. 1010 – Now here is the hand that I have termed “evil” for so many reasons. I overplay this hand more than any other hand, and only recently have I curtailed my bad play with pocket 10’s. So speaking from personal experience, they are an in-between pocket pair that you can’t really play like JJ, but you also can’t play them like 99. I usually want to get in cheap with 99, and with JJ I am hoping to win the hand pre-flop if I can do it cheaply. With pocket 10’s, I am caught somewhere in the middle, and they often hurt me late in tournaments when I overplay them while still having enough chips to be a bit more selective. I have also been too reckless in my re-raise attempts against people (especially short stacks), because if they call I am usually in a race or dominated.

4. JJ – Pocket Jacks always look good when you get them, and then you start thinking “How should I play them?” If you are short stacked late in a tourney, it is usually an easy push, but in most other circumstances they are extremely hard to play. The mistake most people make is treating them like AA or KK and insta-calling an all-in only to face something like QQ, and then they end up just praying for the miracle set. Early in a tournament, I will usually raise with them, but I don’t do anything crazy, and I will almost always fold when two people are raising at each other.

3. AX (Other than K or Q) – I am sure most people are aware of this, but yet we all see it over and over. People either go all-in or call all-in with AX. AJ and A10 might be playable in the right situation, but these A6 or A3 calls I keep seeing are just amusing. AX is so easily dominated by A with higher kicker and pocket pairs if they are equal to X or higher, and even hands that have two cards that fall in between the A and X are not too far behind. Early in a tournament, I won’t even consider playing anything lower than AJ unless it is suited and I am getting in cheap with good odds. If I hit the flop, great, but if I just hit the A, I am not going to call or make a large bet.

2. KQ – As we move down the list, we start to see hands that are more playable, but KQ is another hand so easily dominated and often overplayed. Too often I see people getting all-in with a K or Q high flop early in a tournament, only to get called by AQ or AK. One of the worst feelings is to get all-in and find out your kicker is 2nd best. KQ works the best when hitting two pair or as part of a flush or straight draw. Getting too involved early with merely top pair, second-best kicker can hurt you.

1. AQ – AQ to me is the most overplayed hand out there, since it looks sexy and can be a very good hand to play if played correctly. When you decide to play this hand, you really need to be careful, since AK will have you dominated if the A hits the flop, and you still need to worry about overpairs AA and KK as well as other tricky hands. Just last night I played a $15 MTT on Stars, and on the first hand, I was dealt AKs in middle position. The UTG person raised to 90, and I just pushed all-in for 1500. I know everyone is screaming, “All-in on the first hand?” “With AK?” “To a small bet?” Well, I made this play specifically since early in these lower buy-in tournaments I might gamble a bit early on with some of the bad players before other people get their chips. If the lower tournaments were the highest I played, then I might not pull this move, since it is too early to gamble, nor would I pull this move in a $100 MTT, since 95% of the time I wouldn’t get called, and the 5% of the time that I would get called I would most likely be facing AA, KK, or AK. So back to the hand, he thought for a split second and called. He turned up AQo, and I doubled up on the first hand of the tournament. As a result, I was able to play a bit more freely, thanks to my early tournament gamble that someone would overplay their hand. Unless you are short stacked or have a good read, this hand can get you in trouble. The hand can be played and is a pretty good hand, but in this extreme example, it was horribly overplayed.

The one hand I left off this list is AK. I have a hard time saying this hand is grossly overplayed, but people do get a bit attached to it, especially post flop. The advantage with AK is that even if you overplay them post flop, when they don’t hit, you usually still have outs. Another factor is that most of us are playing online tournaments where the structure is pretty quick, and you can’t just keep folding AK. I have folded AK pre-flop in deepstack tourneys and sometimes in regular tournaments early when there is more than one person heavily betting or when I get a read on someone.

Don’t be afraid to play any of the hands in this list at times—just be careful not to go too far, or you may end up in a bad spot.