Monday, May 3, 2010

Pair over Pair

One of the most devastating matchups you can have in poker is pair over pair. With a pair vs. overcards you are in a coinflip situation, but pairs are just very tough. This weekend I saw 3 examples of this, two in which the bottom pairs got extremely lucky. The first was unfortunately against my friend, Lynne (sorry again, Lynne). She raised in early position with pocket queens, and I re-raised with my pocket kings. She flat called and we saw the 8 high flop. Her first action was all-in and I quickly but reluctantly called, fully expecting to see aces. I was a little surprised to see queens as I thought she might even check to see how I liked the flop, then fold to an all-in (or quickly call with aces). I was surprised at the action as I do not see how she could put my big reraise at anything but aces or kings. I would never reraise with anything less. Anyway, a king on the turn sealed the hand.

The second pair over pair that day was Roland vs. "villain" on the final table at the same tournament. Roland went all-in with kings and was snap called by aces. I commented on the hand saying that I had folded a king. Roland found the case king on the river and a big stack was suddenly a short stack.

My last example was from the tournament this morning. I had 3100 in chips with blinds at 300/600 when another player announced all-in. I looked down at pocket 7's and called, leaving me one $100 chip. I was happy when he asked me if I had a pair, and he showed his pocket 6's. Sweet. The flop was low and all around both of us. The river brought a 7 for me, giving me a set, but unfortunately giving him a straight. If a 6 had come, I would have made the straight. Go figure, whoever hits their set loses, and I was over a 9 to 1 favorite. Oh, well.

1 comment:

7 Dewey said...

Well, my problem is that I can play well one day (with a little luck thrown in of course) and play absolutely crappy the next day. I think I'll start doing yoga or something to get my mind right. I really did like the board when you had kings and I had queens. I do not know why, but I just did not believe you had kings or aces. You are right. I should have checked. I still think I would have had a very hard time laying them down with that board. Ah, well - live and learn! That's what I love about poker. There is always something to think about. Hope to see you soon.