Do not get obsessed with pocket pairs
Many new players believe that pocket pairs are strong hands, irrespective of the board. This partly comes about by watching too much tournament poker on television, where you often see one player move all-in with A-K and another player calls with 6-6. Now it is true that, in certain situations in a no-limit tournament, this is the correct play. But in a regular cash game, you will usually have more than one opponent to contend with and on many occasions, hands like 6-6 won’t win the pot unimproved. Therefore, it is important not to get carried away whenever you are dealt a pair.
Here are a couple of good examples. You start with 5-5 and the flop is Q-10-4. In this situation, there is a chance that you are in front. But if there is a bet and two calls before it’s your turn to act. Someone almost certainly has a better hand and even if they don’t, you are still usually an underdog to win the pot by the river. For instance, if one has a hand like K-J, another has Ah-4h and the third has a hand like J-8, you will only end up with the best on the river around 33% of the time.
Now that is an obvious example. Now let’s look at a more common one. You have K-K and you raise before the flop. The flop comes A-J-J. You bet out, one player raises and another reraises. Almost all the time, one opponent will have an ace in the hole (giving him two pairs: aces and jacks). On some occasions, one or both players will have a jack in the hole (giving him/them trip jacks) with this sort of action on the flop. The worst possible thing you can do here is call. Even if an opponent has A-10 and the other has a hand like 8-8, you still only have a 10% chance of winning the pot.
All players understand that pocket kings is a very strong starting hands, but if there is a lot of action on a flop that contains an ace, better to give it up and save your money for those occasions where the flop is highly favourable. Try to avoid the classic mistake of refusing to muck pocket pairs when the flop is dangerous. It’s a first class ticket to losing your money.
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