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

 THE GAME CONSISTS OF MORE THAN THE BOARD AND YOUR HAND. Even those players who have folded have provided you with valuable information. Look at which position they are sat, which players come next, what does the board look like and what where their last moves. Make sure that you always raise aggressively pre-flop if you have a high pair in hand. Do not try to draw players into the pot because you want to be paid as much as you possibly can with your monster hand. If you raise pre-flop it will be easier for you to determine the hand of your opponents, with a fair degree of accuracy.

In all the examples that we have shown you, it was assumed that you bet 2 x the big blind (2BB) with several players who followed. You raise and determine the next amount to give at the flop. But what if another player re-raises? When this happens, I will never fold a premium hand pre-flop. What is important here is that you re-raise yourself, and do so aggressively, at around 3.5 x the re-raise of your opponent. If I am sat at a No Limit $2/$4 table and I decide to re-raise $16 to $566, then I would never fold my Kings with a flop of 5-6-10. Because of my re-raise, and the fact that he paid, his hand range is reduced to such a degree that he will be -EV (negative expected value in the long-term) to fold his overpair in this exact situation.

RE-RAISED POTS ARE OFTEN DECIDED PRE-FLOP. I have stated clearly that I would not be prepared to fold my hand. If you hold a King-King or Queen-Queen and an Ace falls at the flop, this is obviously a different situation. In this case, you need to take a step back, and if your opponents become too aggressive, you need to know how to fold your cards, regardless of how promising they seemed at the beginning of the round. It was not your round, your table, or your moment of glory, and you will need to wait until a better opportunity arises.

In this last paragraph perhaps you had the impression that I was contradicting myself regarding what I wrote in the first article about folding high pairs. But, in this last example, you will see the flop with fewer opponents and their hand range will be much reduced. It is thus better to go all the way with your high pairs, given that you will find this famous ‘cursed' three-of-a-kind a lot less often.

It is necessary, therefore, that you learn to be wary in these situations, because you will not only encounter overpairs, for example, when you bet all the streets with Queen-Queen and your opponent is happy to pay you all the way with his Ace-Ace. When you feel that you can make a smooth call with, for example, when you bet all the streets with Queen-Queen and your opponent is happy to pay you all the way with his Ace-Ace. When you feel that you can make a smooth call with your pair of Aces instead of going All-In, it is possible that your opponent is betting everything with a pair of Queens. Certain player types get worried even at the point that their pair of Kings is re-raised. It is important to keep all these facts in mind at the moment when you make your final decision. Subsequently you can undertake a value bet, which would be a lot easier given that the hand range of your opponent is much reduced. It is also up to you to keep control of the pot, do not become a martyr to a pair of Aces. No need to risk everything each time, and you will see that you game will then become a lot more profitable.

FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS and have the courage to fold your Aces in an instant when all the warning signs are flashing, for example, a mono-colour flop in a colour that does not give you a good window of opportunity for re-raising an aggressive opponent. This appears evident when said like this, but how many times have you kept on going regardless, notably at times when your ego takes over your objective reasoning. Think back to times when your opponents have had a set, and do not be happy play these bad situations and then cry about the damned unluckiness when you lose.

LEARN TO DECODE BETTING SCHEMES. The majority of people play in a repetitive, stereotyped, fashion, even though they are unaware of it. When I was still playing in the $0.5/$1 games, I often took mini re-raises at the turn when I had three-of-a-kind in hand. You will come to recognise these types of sign and you will often know when your opponents have managed to get the set they were looking for, so be attentive and follow your instincts. I cannot stress this point enough.

FOLDING HIGH PAIRS PREFLOP IS NOT EASY: Easier for a Queen-Queen and Jack-Jack, because with these hand you will quickly realise their real strength in that particular round. But with Ace-Ace and King-King I would not hesitate to play my stack preflop if necessary. I would only fold King-King against an ultra-tight player or if an opponent looks exceedingly happy when an Ace is dealt. It is not easy at all. In fact when you consider the problem carefully, folding Kings has more to do with natural talent and a good spirit, than with the theory of poker. And this cannot be taught.

I hope that you now understand why this type of article can at times appear vague and complex. We are entering into a more advanced stage of strategy than previously discussed. This is paradoxical because it renders the ability to create a complete winning formula harder, as even a winning formula would only be short-term. The great concern with the martingale techniques is that if everybody applied it, then no player would lose, and thus no players would win either.

Sometimes we dream of being an online hacker, to see what our online opponents' hands are, or maybe some of having some magic glasses so that you can see what cards your opponents have when playing a live game. At the same time, what fun would you get from the game of poker if you could see all the cards? In order to play well, you also need to learn well, and it is up to you to adjust the advice in this article to your game in order to win. In my humble opinion it is a lot more profitable in the long term, than trying to learn winning formulas.

Take as long as you need to learn the rules, and to read the articles on this site. I hope that you enjoy them as much as we did in writing them. And I also hope that you learn a few things, while bearing in mind that it is not always easy to carry-out these ideas and that it will take time to learn, but if you love the game as much as I do, you will have a lot of fun.

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

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