K5s from BTN, first in — fold, call or raise?
The answer
Raise
open-raise
The math: The Button opens every suited king — K2s and up. K5s is an easy open.
Why
Yes — wide enough. The Button opens every suited king: only two players are left to get through, you’ll have position for the whole hand, and king-high flush potential plus steal equity do the rest. K5s will sometimes make a dominated top pair, but skipping all those profitable steals costs far more than the occasional kicker headache.
The spot
- Your seat
- BTN
- Stakes and stacks
- $1 / $2 · 100bb
- Your hand
- K♥ 5♥
- Board
- Preflop — no board yet
- Pot
- POT · $3
- Action on you
- Folds to you
Every option
Foldgive up the hand
Why not: Folding the best seat’s bread-and-butter steal burns money — every suited king is a profitable Button open, and K5s is no exception.
Calllimp in
Why not: Limping lets the blinds see a cheap flop and throws away the initiative. On the Button K5s wants the raise: fold equity now, position for the rest of the hand.
Raiseopen-raiseCorrect
2bb · $4 · 2.5bb · $5 · 3bb · $6
The idea behind it
The Button is the widest seat in poker: position plus only two opponents makes even modest suited hands profitable opens. Suited kings never hit the floor here — all of them open. The line gets drawn in the offsuit junk instead.
Concept: Button opens widest
Terms in this spot
Play it instead of reading it
The trainer deals this hand with hints, grading and spaced repetition — and randomized variations of it once you have seen it.