by Barbara Connors
Tripped Up Flops that contain a pair are always tricky to play. Assuming you weren’t fortunate enough to match one of your hole cards with the pair showing in the middle of the table, what do you see when you look at a paired board? Do you see a great opportunity to bluff because you know how unlikely it is that any single opponent holds one of the two matching cards that remains in the deck? Or do you see impending doom, feeling certain that one of your opponents must have flopped trips or a full house, and whatever meager hand you hold cannot possibly still be good?
When the flop comes with a pair, is the poker glass halffull or half-empty? The answer, of course, is “it depends.” Like most everything in poker, the correct way to play a paired board is highly situational. This is true whether you flopped trips or didn’t—but for the sake of this discussion let’s say you didn’t make trips. All things being equal, tripless poker players will typically view a paired board as either a prime bluffing opportunity or a reason to fold. To navigate the path between foolhardy bluffing and imagining monsters under the bed is mainly a matter of thinking things through.
In this situation there’s no substitution for having a good read on your opponent. Absent that, there are other important factors to consider. First and foremost is what card paired on the board. There’s a universe of difference between a flop that reads A-A-7 and a flop like 3-3-7. In the latter case, a board showing a dinky little pair of treys isn’t exactly going to strike fear into the heart of most poker players. We all know that unless the blinds saw a free or very inexpensive flop, it’s unlikely that any of our opponents saw the flop with a trey in hand.
But a flop with two aces is another beast entirely. No card in the deck encourages your opponents to call prior to the flop as much as an ace. Particularly in certain kinds of games (low-limit, shorthanded), any ace paired with almost any other hole card is destined to see the flop. For that matter, any card in the “playing zone”—tens through aces, the most popular cards for calling to see the flop—should be cause for concern when one of them pairs up on the community board because the higher the value of the card, the more likely one is to be lurking in an opponent’s hand. Which is not to say you should automatically assume your opponent has trips when the flop comes down with two high cards? After all, no matter what card pairs on the board there are only two outs in the entire deck that can give an opponent trips. The sheer paucity of outs that can give another player trips is exactly why so many poker players love to bluff at a paired board, and why this bluff can be so effective. Hold’em is a game that rewards aggression and the paired board—a fearful sight for so many of your opponents—provides a perfect example of that. Whether it’s a straight-up bluff, a semi-bluff, or a float play, the player who shows the most aggression on a paired board is almost always the one who picks up the pot. The main exception of course, is when your opponent really does have trips, or even a boat. Again, a good read on your opponent is indispensable. But if for whatever reason you don’t have a good read on this particular adversary, a good rule of thumb to follow is: He who has trips will play his hand slow. Unless your opponent possesses some genuine skill and cunning, a lack of slowplaying usually indicates a lack of trips.
Finally, a word about drawing to a straight or flush when the board is paired—don’t.
Barbara Connors is a sucker for classic old movies, science fiction, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Her life’s ambition is to figure out the unusual behavior patterns of that unique breed of humans who call themselves poker players. Contact her at fyreflye222@yahoo.com
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