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  As we get into the Christmas season most people will no doubt hear stories about a threesome of Eastern Kings following a star across the desert so that they could bestow upon the son of God the sort of gifts that would lift his parents from poverty and give them the ability to raise a Deity's Child in middle class splendor. What would have happened if those Kings had misread the prophecies though? Instead of being a prominent part of Christmas history, they may have seen the star and simply opened a psychic friends hotline.



  If you are lucky enough to have three Kings show up in your hand reading the board properly is vital if you are going to go on to great rewards.



  Let us say that your hole cards include a King of Hearts and King of Clubs. This is a good start. It gets better if one of the two remaining Kings shows up on the flop. This obviously gives you three Kings and puts you in the driver's seat for this hand. So what do you do?



  The temptation for many players will be to take their foot off the gas and suck the rest of the table into mindlessly feeding the pot, competing in blissful ignorance of just how much trouble they are in. Slowplaying has its place, but whether or not this is a good idea depends on what cards are also part of the flop.



  So you have two Kings in your hand and the King of Spades comes out with the flop. Along with the King, there are an eight of hearts and nine of diamonds. This is the time to resist the temptation to slowplay. Unless you have friends standing behind your opponents holding mirrors and giving you the thumbs up, you have no idea what they are holding. When you have a potential straight on the board, you want to douse that fire quickly before it burns you somewhere sensitive and hard to reach.



  The best way to deny this particular fire of oxygen is to bet aggressively; make it very expensive for your opponents to see the turn. For those players who live and die on pot odds, knock it out of balance so they cannot justify going forward and building toward a straight. For those players who can barely calculate a 20% tip, make it a dollar and common sense issue. In short, step on their necks and finish them off. Deny your opponents the opportunity to build their straight. Letting the majority of players hang around through the turn and river puts your three kings in danger of falling to a bad beat.



  Another situation the holder of the Kings should be cautious of is if the flop comes out with two cards of the same suit (if you don't have any cards of that suit in your hand). You don't want to give somebody the opportunity to complete a flush that you can't match.



  If an Ace is part of the flop that gives you three Kings, there is a two-fold danger. The first risk is the unlikely situation that somebody at the table was dealt a pair of Aces. The chances that somebody is clutching those two powerful cards during the same hand where you have been dealt a pair of Kings is statistically unlikely, but still something to be aware of. In most cases if somebody is showing aggression with an Ace on the board, it means they have a matching one in their hand and are feeling good about this high pair. Just be aware of the possibility that they may be holding two of the killer cards, and can squash your Kings.



  The second threat if an Ace falls out during the same flop that gives you three kings is that, once again, you may be facing a straight if you don't scare your opponents off quickly.



  The time to slowplay with three kings is if the flop gives you something like a King, an eight, and three; of different suits. The spacing of these cards makes a straight difficult and your kings will beat any three of a kind your opponents can muster. You want to encourage betting in this case simply because your cards are in a very little danger.



  Three Kings is a powerful hand, but far from invincible. The smart play is to deprive your opponent of the opportunity to get lucky and beat you. This may not be the sexy way to play, but it is the smart way to play.