One of the recurring themes of poker theorists is the concept of dominated hands. Entire books on poker strategy are based primarily on the concept of building the kinds of hands that dominate those held by opponents, and avoiding situations where yours is the hand that's dominated.
If this concept is new to you, here's how it works. If I'm holding A-10 and you have A-K, my hand is dominated. Miraculous straights and flushes that might accrue to A-10 notwithstanding, I have just three outs, and three outs only, to win this pot. And while there are a few more hands that will enable me to split the pot-a rainbow coalition of K-Q-J-10 might hit the board and our straights will propel us to a split pot-that's beside the point since my objective is to win; it's not about playing a lesser hand in hopes of getting my money back courtesy of a really miraculous fall of cards.
Dominated hands, by definition, have three outs. Except for those aforementioned miraculous straights and flushes and a few oddball split pots, only three cards will enable a dominated hand to win the pot. The hand that's doing the dominating owns the rest of the deck!
I'm probably not telling you anything new here; and unless you're new to poker this information shouldn't be anything you don't already know. Regardless of the fact that opponents sometimes seem to make three-outers against you with regularity, no poker player wants his opponent's foot on his throat with only three cards enabling escape.
Sometimes it's not even as good as all that. If the dominating hand is fortunate enough to make two pair, then for all intents and purposes you're drawing dead!
Imagine that. You pair your kicker on the turn or river and bet, or even raise, thinking yours is the best hand. But your hand is still dominated; and what's worse is that your two pair will probably result in a bigger loss-especially if you are frisky and do some raising-than you would have experienced if you suspected you were dominated and made crying calls all the way to the river.
Dominated hands are trouble. That's right, folks. They're trouble-right here in River City, and they're trouble in Flop City and Turn City too. And when you've got trouble it's time to ask yourself, "What can I do about it?" and "How can I avoid getting in situations like this in the first place?"
Many poker authors who write about Texas hold 'em have gone to great lengths to discuss what they euphemistically call "trouble hands." After all, lots of hands fall into this category. In early position, hands like A-J, A-10, K-J, K-10 and Q-J are classic trouble hands. "Call with hands like these in early position," you're invariably admonished, "and you are in big trouble if an opponent raises." After all, conventional wisdom holds that most of your opponents will raise most of the time with hands that are better than those. Whoever is raising is much more likely to have a hand like A-A, K-K, A-K, or A-Q, than a trouble hand.
While that's true as far as it goes, the fact remains that many of your opponents have never read the book, and they don't play by it, either. Some players have far less stringent raising requirements, and other than whim or some inexplicable gut feel that's correct only about as often as the laws of chance say it ought to be, real maniacs often have no raising requirements at all.
I've seen players raise with any suited ace in any position, as well as raise with hands like K-J, K-10, Q-J, J-10, and any pair of sixes or higher. I've seen maniacs raise with 10-7 offsuit just because they "...had a hunch." When you are playing against an opponent who raises with a very broad spectrum of hands, you won't necessarily be dominated if you hold an otherwise troublesome hand like A-J.
More on dominated hands next time...
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