Playing Flopped Sets
Flopping a set is when
you have a pair as your hole
cards and another card of the same denomination
falls on the flop. The odds of flopping a set
when you have a pocket pair are about 7.5 to 1.
Flopping a set is what you look for when you are
playing a pocket pair. It is the best chance
that you have of improving your hand and, unless
you have a pocket pair big enough that you do
not have an over pair coming out on the flop,
then you really and truly need to improve your
hand.
Flopping a Set on a
Bad Board
The 7.5 to 1 times that
you hit your set on the flop, keep paying
attention and look at the makeup of the rest of
the board. If the board has straight and flush
possibilities, then you already may not have the
best hand. If this is the case, you should
probably bet out on the flop, but be careful if
you get too much action. If there are flush or
straight possibilities, then you need to bet to
discourage the other players in the hand from
drawing to make them.
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Maximum Value
When you have a pair of
8’s and the flop comes out 2♠,
8♥,
Q♣,
then you don’t really have
to worry about players drawing out on you. In
this case, you might want to just call a bet or
make a small bet, or even just check the hand.
At this point, you want the other players in the
pot to improve their hands. Using this example,
the only opposing hand that would be a big
problem to you is pocket queens. Fortunately,
the odds against this are huge and you shouldn’t
worry about these situations. Many times players
will simply lose a good chunk or all of their
money in such an event, and it’s near impossible
to get out of it. All you have to do is make
sure is that you get maximum value out of the
times that your sets hold, so they can
compensate for the big loss you will take when
you find yourself up against a bigger set.
Don’t Give Your Hand
Away
Flopping a set on the
turn is exciting. Keep your head cool and make
sure you don’t give away too much information
through timing tells or overly aggressive
behavior. Many times when a player gets the card
that he wants on the flop, like hitting his set,
they have a tendency to forget their table image
and make jumpy bets or incorporate an unusual
pattern. This works to your advantage every now
and then, but by making consistently timed bets
it will become much harder to figure out your
image.
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