Jun

5

Poker - How Best to Play Medium Pairs Post-flop

Filed Under Poker |

Your pre-flop hand selection is undoubtedly the most important factor to your overall success playing poker, but that’s not to say you will wipe the floor with all your challengers based solely on your pre-flop judgment.

At the average online poker table a flop will be dealt approximately 30%-35% of the time. That means that approximately 70% of the time the hand will be decided pre-flop. The problem with that is a pre-flop pot will only contain a few blinds and perhaps a raise if you’re lucky. If you are to going to win a poker tournament though, you will need to learn how to play your cards correctly after the flop as well.

So let’s have a look through a few scenarios. It should be pointed at this point that the following odds are based on a heads-up all-in situation. They don’t take into consideration the fact that your opponent(s) is most likely to bet on the flop forcing you to either call, raise or fold.

Scenario #1

Your hand 9c 9d

Odds of winning heads up————72.1%

Odds of winning against 9 players—-15.6%

Odds of flopping a set—————11.76%

4 players call the big blind and now it’s your turn to act.

You raise 3 times the big blind

The big blind calls and two players call, the other two fold.

You’re now 4 to the flop

A quick calculation reveals that you are now a 32.6% favorite to win the hand assuming everyone checks to the river.

The flop comes:

Kd 7c 6c

The BB checks, Player 2 checks, Player 3 bets the minimum, and now it’s up to you. Let’s take a second and and run a quick analysis of the way things currently stand:

Q: How does your hand relate to the board?

A: Middle pair, only one overcard.

Q: Is it possible someone is holding a K in their hand?

A: The BB and player 2 checked which potentially rules them out. Player 3 bet the minimum which is generally a fishing bet and not representative of a K.

Q: Is it possible someone is holding 7-7 or 6-6?

A: Same as with the possibility of a K if someone was holding trips they would have bet out on the flop and more than the minimum amount.

Q: Are there any possible draws?

A: A club flush draw is possible.

Q: Are my pocket 9s good?

A: Only one way to find out: raise.

You raise half the pot.

The BB folds, player 2 fold. Player 3 thinks about it for a second and says those words you didn’t want to hear “I’m all-in”.

You fold immediately.

Chances are that player 3 was in fact holding either A-K or made a set on the flop. Either way, you have managed to discover exactly where you stand with a minimum of cost.

Keep in mind that while you may have lost a small portion of your chip stack by raising a fractional amount of the pot, you were able to determine that you were behind and most likely beat by an opponent who was bent on slow playing a stronger hand.

In Texas hold ‘em poker, a good laydown is often more valuable than a good win. Had your opponent been holding 6d or 7d he would have laid it down immediately following your raise.

This article was written by TheShortStack.co.uk home of the latest news, reviews and online poker room ratings


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3 Comments so far

  1. Nick on June 30, 2008 2:42 pm

    Hi blog owner,

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  2. Jimmy Smith on July 3, 2008 3:35 am

    This few scenarios are great.

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