Poker: High Pair Vs 3-of-a-Kind.

"Here we go again! He's got three-of-a-kind again! And I had the top pair!"- This article begins with an exclamation made by most poker players at some point in their ‘poker career'.

The phrase encompasses all the despair and frustration that players in this situation feel. But, it is exactly in this type of situation that you can become a winning player. If you are capable of folding your pair of Aces when your opponent manages three-of-a-kind, but that your opponent cannot bring themselves to fold when the reverse situation occurs, your profits are going to go sky-high in the long run. These are among the key moments in your poker life.

EVERY POKER PLAYER KNOWS THIS, AWFUL, SITUATION: You fixate on the screen and press the button to CALL. "Oh no! This donkey really did have three-of-a-kind!!!" Does this remind you of anyone? Yes, me too, I used to find myself in such situations on a daily basis. The funniest thing is that often you know perfectly well what happened.

SO, WHY PAY? There are some players who take the die hard route; "Never fold a pair of Aces". Others take the opposite view, always assuming the worst, believing that their opponent always has three-of-a-kind, and thus they always fold their high pairs. Here, we no longer consider the pot, we forget to reflect on the game, we see only one thing; that we have once again lost the hand! And, often neglect to ask ourselves why we have lost.

RID YOURSELF OF THIS RECURRENT TILTING, and think about all those pots, and all those hands that have been wasted. Listen to your inner voice, because often, you will agree with me, even if you do not want to believe it, deep down you know you have been beaten. If you have a bad feeling about a round, what should you do? Do you feel the thoughts described below, rushing to the surface? Learn how to listen to yourself, you will benefit more often than not.

The problem in playing overpairs (pairs constructed from the highest value cards, under the top pair), is that you will often win small pots, but lose out on the larger ones. It is not easy, either, to play when the following cards are down, Jack of Clubs, 10 of Clubs, 4 of Hearts, 10 of Diamonds and Queen of Clubs, when you have a pair of Aces in hand.

A good piece of advice: when you play Aces, the first thing to do is to stay clam. The pot does not need to grow disproportionately. If you are playing in no-limit, this does not mean that it should be ridiculously high. It is up to you to control the size of the pot. For example, say that you raise pre-flop with a pair of Aces and the flop brings a Jack-2-6. Your only opponent follows your continuation bet. The turn brings a king, and you begin to feel a bit scared. There is nothing wrong with speaking when you are in position in order to see what happens at the river. If your opponent checks, then you can make a value bet. If he raises then you need to address your play, the problem with speaking at the turn is that you will often be met by a bet at the river.

But is this really a problem? If you do not raise at the turn, numerous players will think that the Jack-X is a good hand and will thus make a value bet at the river, and they will either follow the bet, or they will fold their hand if you bet at the turn. Consequently, by controlling the size of the pot, you will end up winning more money when playing against weaker hands.

If they have three-of-a-kind and they bet at the river, you can chose simply to pay. In this case you will lose less money against hands that beat you. By playing your hands in such a fashion you are in a win-win situation; losing less when you are beaten, but more when you win! Not bad as a concept, in playing this way, you will not have to risk going All-In each time that you have an overpair. Chose your spot carefully to play full blast when you have an overpair, but also know how to slowdown when you need to.

STUDY CAREFULLY THE CARDS ON THE TABLE: A flop such as 2-6-K (rainbow) is a dream come true when you have a pair of Aces, whereas a 5-6-7 with two diamonds is a nightmare in the making. I have often spoken when I have Aces on such a flop, in order to fold them with the lowest losses. Imagine, for example, that four players pay your raise Under The Gun pre-flop, and that such a flop arises. The big blind bets the same amount of the pot and you have three sharks to play after you. In this situation, I would cut my losses and fold! This is not an ideal situation for a top pair, even if they are Aces.

STUDY THE FLOP CAREFULLY, count the number of players still in the game and analyse their actions. Imagine now that you see the flop give up the dream 2-6-K (rainbow) with Aces in hand. This time you are at a table of no-limit $2/$4 with none players, where four have followed your raise pre-flop. You bet $80 in a pot of $106. Every player has a stack of around $400, and the player to your left re-raises to $200. I have bad news: you are done. What you need to understand here is that this player does not only raise the initial re-raiser, but also the three other players who followed. This type of situation should alert you to the fact that they probably have three-of-a-kind. Learn to recognise these kinds of situation.

Poker: High Pairs Vs 3-of-a-kind Part 1 Poker: High Pair Vs 3-of-a-kind Part 2

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