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2.7 Types of Poker Hands continued...
Small Pocket Pairs
99, 88, 77 and lower
Although these are decent hands to play, and you may be in the lead before the flop, these are hands that are easily beaten.
What we are looking for here is to hit a third card on the flop to make three of a kind. It’s about a 1 in 8 chance of hitting, but when we do hit, then we have not only a very powerful hand, but also a disguised powerful hand.
Lets say we hold 8
8
and the flop comes down A 8
5
, Anyone who is holding top pair with Aces will be fairly confident thinking they are in the lead and will be prepared to put money into the pot, not realising that they are actually way behind to your three of a kind.
You will find that opponents make mistakes in this sort of situation and as you know we profit from our opponents mistakes. The ideal turn or river card to come above would be another Ace as anyone holding an A in their starting hand would have hit three of a kind and will be prepared to put a lot of money into the pot, a pot which you are going to win with your disguised full house 8 8 8 A A.
If you do not hit your three of a kind on the flop, then it is likely that you will no longer have the best hand, especially in a multi-way pot. Here we would be looking to fold to any large bets.
Don’t chase the hand, if you don’t hit your three of a kind on the flop then I suggest you fold your hand to any decent bets.
The only situations which would be different to this, are as follows:
- If your hand has gained more ‘outs’ (cards that could hit that can improve your hand) eg: you hold 8 8 and the flop comes down 9 6 7, here you have picked up an open ended straight draw with any 10 or 5 that hits on the turn or river making your hand into a straight.
- All the cards on the flop are lower that your pocket pair - in this situation you may still have the best hand but be careful of straight possibilities.
In the above situations it may be the correct move to stay in the pot depending on the amount that your opponent is betting.
Drawing Hands
Our drawing hands are split into 3 categories
Suited Connectors eg: 9 8
Suited Gapped Connectors eg: J 9
Suited Ace’s eg: A 4
With these hands we want to get into the pot cheaply to see the flop and we want to be playing in a multi-way pot (multiple players) so that the pot is a reasonable size. The reason for this is with drawing hands we will be considering the Pot Odds, this is something you will learn about in more detail later on in the course.
Suited Connectors eg: 9 8
Although these cards are not individually very powerful, they can give us a chance of drawing either a straight or a flush, or even a mega monster hand such as a Straight Flush.
By being in the hand we always have a chance to flop other hands like 2 pair, or three of a kind if the flop is kind to us.
Suited Gapped Connectors eg: J 9 or J 8
A gapped connector is very similar to Suited Connectors except there is a gap in between your hole cards. The concept of playing is the same but they are slightly weaker than Suited connectors, which is why there are not many Suited Gapped Connectors in the Starting Hands chart.
Suited Ace’s eg: A 4
Here we have the opportunity to draw a Nut flush, if any 3 cards come on the Flop, Turn or River of the same suit we have in our hand, then we have the best possible Flush (with the Ace high)
These hands must be played very carefully though. We are looking to hit 2 pair or better. If we pair our Ace on the flop then our hand is still very weak, because of the low kicker card anyone else who has also paired their Ace will have us beat.
CONTINUE TO NEXT SECTION - 2.8 Challenge *Stage 2* $27 - $29
