Reading the Flop, Pairs

The player with the best starting hand does not automatically win the pot. Choosing to play only good starting hands is extremely important, perhaps it the most important strategy concept but it is a preflop strategy. In order to become a successful Texas Hold'em player, good play before the flop must be followed up with good play after the flop. In order to be able to do this, an ability to read or assess the flop is necessary.

Reading the flop means determining whether the three cards that the flop brings, are good or bad for your cards. That the flop comes with three cards - so that you know five out the seven final cards - means that you have a decent opportunity to estimate whether you are ahead or behind. The flop can turn good starting cards into inferior hands postflop. The reverse can also happen, although it is not as common. It is easier to turn riches into rags than a dollar into a million.

The following examples are a guide to how a category of starting hands combine with various flops. The article is divided into three parts, section 2 and 3 will deal with high cards and suited connectors while this first tackles pairs or high pairs.

With a high but not a "big" pair such as J J, no matter what cards that come, the hand has some value. The relative strength of the hand depends on what the flop brings though. So lets see what you can get with the aforementioned pocket cards.

Pocket Cards


The different flops are ordered from good to bad, for the case when you hold a pocket pair.

Flop, Quads


The cards can hardly combine more beautifully. Four jacks J J J J 8 make four of a kind or quads, an almost unbeatable hand. This is a dream flop, it makes your hand extremely strong. Hitting quads only happens about one in four hundred times though.

Flop, Trips


Getting trips, combining your two pocket cards with one other card of the same rank on the board thus creating a set, is what you are usually hoping for when holding a pocket pair. It happens slightly less than on in eight times. When you hit it, you are really strong. Most of the times you are ahead with a set of jacks J J J A T.

This is one of the worse flops when you still hit a set of jacks though. It is likely that you are competing against straight and flush draws, with opponents holding something as A K or K T. If a diamond suited card or a queen comes on the turn or the river then you would be beat. Nor is it unlikely that an opponent would already have a straight, holding something like K Q. Had the flop been J 7 2 then the relative strength of your set of jacks would have been much greater.

Flop, Overpair


Your pocket pair is higher than the highest card on the board, J J T 8 4. This means that if you had the highest pair before the flop, then you still have the highest pair after the flop. Someone could have you beat with a two pair or a hidden set. Someone could also be betting with a flush draw. This is a good flop for you. What you should be aware of is people playing one gapped suited cards as T 8, a smaller pocket pair as 8 8, or the improbable case that the big blind that could see the flop free or cheaply has 8 4.

Someone could also have been slowplaying a pocket pair of kings K K. However, although you should always be aware of the worst case scenarios, you can not always expect them and be afraid of them in Texas Hold'em. This is a good flop and you are probably ahead. Had your pocket pairs been lower ranked as 7 7 and still been an overpair to a flop of 6 4 3 then being open minded to higher pairs than your and other scenarios makes more sense.

Flop, Underpair


With this flop your pocket pair is lower than the highest card on the board, J J A T 7. So anyone who holds this over card has you beat with a higher pair. Thus this is a bad flop for your pocket cards. This is especially true when the over card is an ace as in this case. Aces are mesmerizing and people tend to hold on to much too many starting hands as long as they include an ace. It does not matter if someone is playing a crap hand like A 6, they still have you beat with this flop.