Bad kicker...maybe not so bad

[pudley4]

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We all know kickers can be the difference between best and second best hands. BUT, with all the garbage flops that happen your bad kicker can make an open ended straight along with top pair. So even though I have been out kicked by even one rank many times, I have taken down big pots with having a bad kicker that has made a straight or two pair. How important in "today's" game is the kicker?

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A slightly more serious response:

Get Pokertracker. Play 100k hands. Look at your win rate with every Ax hand. Graph the results. Does your graph go up/down/straight across? There's your answer.

[winky51]

that is the best tool you can get to improve your game.

[AlanBostick]

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that is the best tool you can get to improve your game.

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... if and only if you play online and therefore have a database of hand histories.