Poker Strategy

Question: You are playing heads up in Holdem against pocket aces and you do not have suited connected cards (making a straight flush possible). However, the flop helps you so much that your opponent is drawing stone-cold dead against you. What are you holding in your hand and what is the flop?

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Question: What is the weakest "nut" poker hand that someone can hold on the river in Holdem? What are the two cards in the player's hand and what is on board?

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Question: What is the weakest two cards that someone can hold preflop and nonetheless manage to flop such a big hand that everyone is drawing dead against him reagrdless of what they're holding. What are the hole cards and what is the flop?

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Question: What are the most possible outs a drawing hand can have on the flop? The drawing hand is technically still behind but he has the most possible outs one will ever have in holdem. what are the hole cards of both players and what is the flop?

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Question: what is the best drawing hand possible on the flop? What are both players holding and what is the flop?

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Question: How many outs does a draw hand generally need on the flop in order to be a favorite?

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Question: How is it possible to have the winning hand going in to the river but your hand is so weak that you cannot possibly win on the river and you could lose is a bad card comes. What are you holding, what is your opponent holding, and what is on board?

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Question: I once won a pot with 65 high unimproved against two other players (holding different hole cards). What is the board and what are they holding?

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Question: what is the weakest "kicker" with which a player can win a hand? What does his opponent have and what is on board?

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Question: Barring quads on board, what is the weakest kicker with which a player can win a hand? What does your opponent have and what is on board?

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Question: You are playing a small pocket pair against a bigger pocket pair in Holdem and neither one of you flop a set; yet, a set is no longer an out for you. What is the flop?

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Question: How is it possible to flop top pair in Holdem and yet be drawing dead to win the entire pot (if you get really lucky, you will split the pot)? You are not up against a straight flush or top set.

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Question: You are playing against two other players and you have just flopped top pair. You are not up against a straight flush, top set or quads. Is it possible to be drawing dead even to a split pot? Why?

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Question: You are playing against two other players and you have just flopped middle pair (without any backdoor straight/flush draws). You are not up against a straight flush, top or middle set and yet you are drawing dead. You cannot possibly win any part of the pot no matter what comes out! What are the three of you holding and what is the flop?

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Question: Is it ever possible to have one pair on the flop and be drawing completely dead in a heads up situation? Your opponent does not have a straight flush, quads or a set in the rank of your pair.

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Question: What is the worst possible drawing hand on the flop?

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Question: What is the weakest poker hand a player can hold on the flop with which he can nonetheless be strong enough to have his opponent drawing completely dead?

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Answers

Answer: You are playing Ax and the flop gives you quads of the rank of x. Since you've got the case ace as a kicker, the pocket aces cannot make bigger quads and he is therefore drawing dead.

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Question: What is the weakest "nut" poker hand that someone can hold on the river in Holdem? What are the two cards in the player's hand and what is on board?

Answer: The hand is QQQ87 kicker. The player is holding pocket queens and the board is showing Q8732 offsuit. If the player is holding a smaller top set, then there will always be some straight possibility. If a player is holding any hand weaker than QQ in the hole then it'll take much more than trips to make the nuts.

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Question: What are the weakest two cards that someone can hold preflop and nonetheless manage to flop such a big hand that everyone is drawing dead against him reagrdless of what they're holding and regardless of what comes out in the next two cards. What are the hole cards and what is the flop?

Answer: The player is holding 52 suited and the flop is A43 suited. If he flops a "steel wheel" (5 high straight flush) without holding the five in his hand then there is the possibility of someone making a bigger straight flush if it comes runner runner 98, 97, 96, 87, 86, or 76 of that suit. Note that if a player is holding 42 or 32 and flops quads, he can still easily be drawn out by any pocket pair who hits runner runner bugger quads.

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Question: What are the most possible outs a drawing hand can have on the flop? The drawing hand is technically still behind but he has the most possible outs one will ever have in holdem. What are the hole cards of both players and what is the flop?

Answer: 23 outs! The player is holding JT suited against pocket deuces and the flop comes 998, the 98 being suited. The JT will now win if any Q, J, T, 8, 7 or flush card falls on the turn or river as long the deuces does not fill up. The JT thus has a total of 23 outs with two cards to come and that is more than half the deck (there are only 45 card left in the deck after the flop). BTW, the The JT will also win if any running pair falls on the board. The actual odds on the flop are in favor of the JT to win, 69% vs 31%. Ironically, even though the scenario just described allows for the most single card "outs" for the JT suited, an even more favorable drawing hand is possible with the JT suited vs pocket deuces. If the flop is 983 with the 98 suited, then the JT has 21 outs, assuming that the pocket deuces is not holding the suited deuce which is needed by the JT in order to make his flush (this card was not an out in the previous scenario in which there was a pair on board). However, this kind of flop is actually more favorable to the JTs because a nine or deuce does not kill his draw now. Therefore, the JT will win 72% of the time on such a flop even though he only has 21 outs.

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Question: what is the best drawing hand possible on the flop? What are both players holding and what is the flop?

Answer: As described earlier, the best draw hand on the flop is the JT suited vs pocket deuces when the flop is 98 suited with a blank that does not pair the board. Note that the JT suited is better off being up against pocket deuces than an ace or king high, because ace high has a three card redraw against the JT if he hits a jack or ten on the turn whereas the pocket deuces only has a two card redraw. Also, two pair on board is no good for the JTs if he's up against ace high.

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Question: How many outs does a draw hand generally need on the flop in order to be a favorite?

Answer: 14 outs are required for a drawing hand to be a favorite. With 14 outs, the drawing hand will lose if two unhelping cards are chosen out of the 31 unhelping cards. 31 choose 2 is 465 while the total possible combinations are 45 choose 2 = 990 and so there are 465 losing combinations vs. 525 (990 - 465) winning combinations for the drawing hand. To keep things simple, we can say that the drawing hand will win 525/990 = 53% of the time. In reality, the drawing hand will not win all these times because the winning hand always has redraws against some of the drawing hand's outs. An example of a 14 outer draw is KQ vs 88 when the flop is JTx. In this case the two eights in the deck provide a redraw for the pocket eights in case the KQ hits a pair on the turn. Still, in most cases percentage differences due to redraws are negligable.

13 outs is no longer a favorite but is a split hair away from a coin flip. 13 outs will lose 32 choose 2 = 496 combinations and win 494 combinations.

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Question: How is it possible for you to have the winning hand going in to the river but have such a vulnerable hand that you cannot possibly still be the winner on the river no matter what comes out and you could lose if a bad card comes out. What are you holding, what is your opponent holding and what is on board?

Answer: You are playing 32 vs 22 and the board is showing two pair. The three kicker currently plays, giving you the best hand. However if the river card is anything other than a deuce, then the river card will play as the kicker for both of you and it will be a split pot. If you are unlucky and the case deuce comes off, you will lose to deuces full.

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Question: I once won a pot with 65 high unimproved against two other players (holding different hole cards). What was on the board and what were my opponents holding?

Answer: The board was 32xxx where x is any card other than an ace, four, five or six. My opponents had 64 and 54 and my 65 played for the best hand. This actually happened to me once in a Trpoicana tournament about 3 years ago.

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Question: What is the weakest "kicker" with which you can win a hand? What does your opponent have and what is on board?

Answer: A three kicker will play if there are quads on baord and your opponent has pocket deuces. This is the only way in which a three kicker will ever win a pot.

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Question: Barring quads on board, what is the weakest kicker with which you can win a hand? What does your opponent have and what is on board?

Answer: The the board is showing two pair, one of them being deuces and both you and your opponent are holding the rank of the kicker for two pair bigger than the board. However, your kicker's kicker is a four while his kicker is a three. Example. A4 vs A3 and the board is AKK22. Your hand is AAKK4 while your opponent has the losing hand of AAKK3. Note that there must be a pair of deuces on board in order for a four kicker to play. This kind of scenario also occurred to me in tropicana once. See the hand of the week page

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Question: You are playing a small pocket pair against a bigger pocket pair in Holdem and neither one of you flop a set; yet, a set is no longer an out for you. What is the flop?

Answer: The flop contains trips bigger than your pocket pair. Both of you now have a big full house and a set will therefore not improve your hand against the bigger full house (unless you catch runner runner quads). An example is QQ vs 33 when the flop is 777. A three does not improve the "seven's full of three's" hand.

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Answer: You are up against two players. One player has flopped top two pair and his kicker is higher than yours and the other player has a pocket pair bigger than your kicker and has flopped middle or bottom set. You do not have any backdoor straight or fluch draws. If your kicker hits twice, you lose to the set who will have a bigger full house. If you trip up with top pair, you lose to the top two pair whi will make a bigger full house. For example: you are holding A4o, player B has is holding A9o and player C has JJ. Flop is AJ9 offsuit. You cannot win this hand no matter what comes out!

Note that even in this extreme scenario, you can still split the pot with the A9o if it comes A9 thus giving both of you aces full of nines.

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Answer: No! You cannot be drawing completely dead against only two opponents! You will always have some way to win, if only half the pot, in case you get really lucky, unless you are up against top set. As described in the previous example A4o vs A9 and TT on a flop of AT9 can still manage to split the pot even though the A4 cannot possibly scoop.

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Answer: One player has flopped top two pair, another has flopped bottom set and you have flopped middle pair with a kicker that is lower than the bottom set. If you hit your kicker twice, bottom set will make a bigger full house. If you hit middle pair, top two will make a bigger boat. Example: you are holding T5o vs ATo vs 99. Flop is AT9. You are drawing completely dead!

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Answer: No! As long as your opponent does not have one of the above (which are very unlikely holdings), you will always have some outs to win. In the worst case scenario, when your opponent has a big set and you have a small pair with no backdoor draws, you can still win if you catch running quads. This is how I once got beat by pocket sixes vs my pocket kings on a flop of AK5. Moral of the story: never fold a pair on the flop! Just kidding... don't sue me for you poker losses resulting from such play.

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Question: What is the worst possible drawing hand on the flop?

Answer: a small pair vs top set with no other draws. 66 vs KK on a flop of AK5 rainbow is a good example. 66 will win 1 out of 990 such flops. The dealer must handpick two perfect cards from the deck (45 choose 2 = 990) in order for the 66 to win.

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Question: What is the weakest poker hand a player can hold on the flop with which he can nonetheless be strong enough to have his opponent drawing completely dead?

Answer: Three of a kind, either through trips or a set! ("trips" is when there is a pair on board and you have one of that rank, whereas a "set" is three of a kind using a pocket pair). If your opponent has no pair and no straight draw or flush draw then he's drawing completely dead. Example: 33 vs AKo on a flop of 873 rainbow. Note that the AK cannot even get to split the pot through a straight/flush on board in this scenario. If you flop trips, its rank must be higher than the rank of the other card on board. Otherwise, your opponent can split the pot with you if it comes runner runner of that rank giving both of you the same full house.

Note also that even a hand as strong as top two will NEVER have an opponent drawing dead, no matter what the opponent has. Since the winning hand does not have trips, even a no-pair hand can win by catching runner runner trips.

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