A common situation of trouble in Texas Holdem games is, when you hold a pocket pair and there's an overcard on the flop. This Texas Hold'em strategy article is about how many times there's going to be an overcard on the flop and a little bit of how to fight against it or them. Very good players make it extremely difficult to play low pocket pairs, but there are ways to fight against these skilled players, too. And even more ways to fight against less-skilled players.
Generally, I like to be on the side of overcards unless I'm facing a huge calling station. The good thing about being on the side of overcards is your opponent's folding equity. The hand is much weaker if all the folding equity vanishes. I would take it easy with overcards when I'm facing a super-calling-station just because either he will call you down, or he'll fold when board gets way too dangerous/obvious. Checking on turn in order to see a free card with overcards is not a bad idea against a calling station.
When your opponent folds a bit more, though, it's a good idea to get more aggressive because now the folding equity comes into play and it will make your plays way more profitable. IF the board remains fairly dry and not that probably for you to have hit, bet a lot against calling stations. But the tough thing about it is that if someone's already got an overcard and he calls your bet, there's another overcard that hits you, even calling stations think about folding here. The board just gets too dangerous. Hard to get value.
Whereas when you're on the side of pocket pairs, it's hard to call or raise when someone tight bets on a flop with an overcard. But then again someone who bluffs a lot, well, you'll get more value by just calling than what he does by betting. Generally, I like just calling with pocket pairs on the flop when there's one overcard. Now, let's look at these stats and continue strategy talk after that.
Texas Holdem Flops w/o Overcards
There are 19,600 different flop combinations in total. Here's a list of pocket pairs and possible flop combinations without any overcards:
- There's, of course, no flop without an overcard for a pair of deuces.
- Threes = 20 possible flop combinations without an overcard.
- Fours = 120.
- Fives = 364.
- Sixes = 816.
- Sevens = 1,540.
- Eights = 2,600.
- Nines = 4,060.
- Tens = 5,984.
- Jacks = 8,436.
- Queens = 11,480.
- Kings = 15,180.
- And for a pair of Aces, naturally no possible flops with an overcard.
Pocket Pairs in Trouble
If you've got serious problems with playing against more aggressive opponents, playing pocket pairs will be a tough one. Even though playing pocket pairs might sound better (in theory) against a lot of players, I still prefer overcards. And I prefer overcards because I like to control the game and be the aggressor. I want to have my opponent making tough decisions and "being in trouble". When you can get your opponent in various trouble situations, eventually there'll be a mistake. He might be able to call you down a couple of times, but he knows that you're going to have something soon, so he really can't do that too much anymore. It becomes much harder to do, and every call will be a trouble. So the trouble factor should be taken into account.
There you go with some general wondering about advantages and disadvantages in pocket pairs vs. overcards games. I certainly hope those stats will help you. You can get a better understanding of how many times you'll see an overcard, which is quite useful especially if you've got a problem playing against them.
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