Pocket Deuces

Author: Simon Dexter

Hi,

Like most people, I’m more than happy to ‘muck the ducks’ when, in early position, I pick up pocket deuces in a nine-handed game. Similarly, if I’m dealt a pair of kings, I’m comfortable raising from any position, irrespective of the game’s stakes.

I suspect that most poker players work on a similar ‘auto-pilot’ basis, although my problem arises when I’m dealt marginal cards such as A-J and K-10. They feel like strong hands, but is there a range of odds or percentages which show players the likelihood of winning when say, they’re up against a pair or a genuinely premium hand, pre-flop?

JN
Northampton

Hi J,

The percentage chances of winning with marginal hands such as unsuited A-J, K-10 or A-10 obviously depend upon the type of pair you find yourself up against, but if you hold say, A-10 and your opponent has pocket fours, you have a slightly less than even money chance (actually, it’s 46.4%) of winning.

Naturally enough, your chances drop the more powerful your opponent’s pair. If he’s been dealt pocket rockets, he has a 90.7% chance of beating you (assuming you’ve got A-10) – not as though you would know this, unless he’s a comparatively easy opponent to read. Funnily enough, however, should an opponent hold a pair of aces and you’ve been dealt K-10, your chances of success actually improve, although only marginally, to 14.4%.

The nearest a marginal pre-flop hand comes to being considered better than a pair is if you’re holding K-10 and your opponent has a pair of twos. In this instance, you have a 50.5% chance of losing, but have only a 48.7% of success – there’s a 0.8% chance you could tie.

In each case, reading your opponent and understanding their style of play becomes a significant factor in how you proceed with marginal hands, something we plan to re-visit in the poker room shortly.

Simon Dexter

Tags: Poker Lesson, poker odds, Poker School, poker skill, Poker Strategy

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 am and is filed under Have Your Say!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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