Two pair is a very beneficial hand to have a chance of winning. This is because should you hit two pair, you will have a very strong hand. You’ll have a lower pair, but still a stronger hand than the other player. As a result, you will often see the high hand win.
On the other hand, you won’t win so much if you only have a pair. The payoff is lower for two pair, but you can win if you have trips or a DewaGG. That’s what we’ll look at here.
Pot Odds
You need to remember two things about pot odds:
1. their are different types of odds and
2. they are relative.
In the above example, it might be worth splitting the pot into two pots to have a better chance of winning. That is real simple. You need to take into account the fact that the other player in the hand might have higher face value.
If you run an three-card Monte in an early position, look at the flop and see if you have a possibility of hitting a full house. That’s a strong hand. If you, in fact, have the better hand, you should bet aggressively and hope to get as much money in the pot as possible.
However, you need to remember that not all two pair situations will yield a call. If you have a pair and there are two other low cards on the flop, you should bet aggressively in the knowledge that you will get a call.
You need to understand the odds offered by the pot in order to bet with two pair. Your pair is weak if there is an over card on the flop. That over-card can well kill your pair.
If you don’t feel that you have a good chance of getting your card on the turn, you can try to see the river for a cheap unless there are high cards expected. If you are, you should bet to try and take the pot.
Strategies Involved in Making a Two Pair
As I said before, you will need to adjust your strategy in two ways: on the flop or on the turn. When making a two pair against one high card, you are at worst a 60% favourite. When against two high cards, you are at best 50% to win.
As an example, you have a pair of kings. Against one high card, you are only a 42% favourite. With two high cards, you are a short 37% to win. So the situation where you have two pair against two high cards is a risky one.
You can’t expect to win the two pair all the time. If this were the only situation where two pair made a profit, the bookmakers would have a lot of trouble with it. However, the two pair situations where you are favoured are where the two pairs compliment each other.
This can give you a very strong hand and an excellent opportunity to win. When you have two pair, you are half way to a hand on the flop. If you hit the third card to complete your two pair, you are almost guaranteed to win the hand.
Therefore, the two-pair situation is the optimum situation to make money in. As soon as you have completed one pair, you should try to push. If you are re-raised, you should fold.
Of course many books will advocate that you slow down. Also, many aggressive players will call your clearances far too aggressively. Don’t be put off by these players, they are not sharks.
Verdict
Playing two pair is easy once you know how. However, sometimes the decisions are as difficult as the situations themselves. The two pair situations are not easy, and any player can probably be put in a lede role in winning one or two of the pots.
