Some Thoughts on Over-Pairs

By Nick Eisel

For the last few months I've been doing lots of writing on theory, hand ranges, and other complex aspects of No Limit Hold'em cash games. This month, I want to return to some basic strategy and talk about the play of top pair and over-pair type hands. It's my belief that many players not only overvalue these holdings in No-Limit Hold'em, but that they take the wrong approach entirely with these types of hands.

To start with, I want to emphasize that neither an over-pair or a top pair type of hand is usually going to yield a big pot. Surprised? You shouldn't be. If you've bet the flop and turn and been called by a normal online opponent, I'm willing to bet you are behind more often than not unless he missed a draw. This is not a difficult leak to fix, though, since you can just start at the beginning and stop building big pots without big enough hands. There are certainly situations where you'll want to be getting all of your money in with an over-pair, which I'll cover later, but in general you should exercise pot control and try to get to a showdown while generating some value along the way if possible.

Let me clarify a bit by giving you a standard line of betting I'd pursue with lots of over-pair type holdings. Say I raise pre-flop with K-K and get called by one opponent I don't have much information on. Now say an average flop comes, maybe J-9-6 with a flush draw. My opponent checks and calls my 2/3 pot continuation bet and the turn is an off-suit 2. At this point, most people are firing another barrel because they want their opponent to pay for his draw or get off of his hand. While this logic isn't entirely flawed, it is the type of thinking that will make you successful at limit poker and put you in a lot of tough spots in No Limit. The reasons I prefer checking behind on the turn here a fair amount of the time are as follows.

• My opponent may be slow-playing and now check-raise, which will put me in a tough position where I have to decide if he is making a move with a draw or maybe just top pair. This may not seem horrible on the surface, but if you look at how big the pot will be after I bet the turn and he check-raises, we'll essentially be playing for stacks if I decide to continue. If he was in fact slow-playing I will be drawing near dead to a set most of the time, or possibly have some outs against two pair.
• He may simply call my turn bet and then lead out on the river depending on what comes. If a blank comes it's probably an easy call, but what if the flush card comes in or the top card from the flop pairs? I will be put into a guessing game situation for a reasonable amount of chips and against someone on whom I have no information.
• He may also call my turn bet and then improve, at which point he could move all-in on the river and I may be forced to call because I bloated the pot earlier in the hand. On the type of board I described earlier, if he was on a straight draw and hit it would be very difficult for me to fold given the chance he is bluffing if something like an innocuous 5 comes off and he moves all-in.

Hopefully you're starting to see that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages in most cases. There are other benefits to checking the turn, which are that the average player loves to bluff the river when the turn checks around in a heads-up pot. This is especially true online. So, taking a look at the big picture, I give my opponent a chance to draw out on me in a small or medium-sized pot by checking the turn. By doing so, however, I increase his bluffing frequency a ton and also get to a cheap showdown where my hand has a good chance of being good. In limit poker, betting the turn would definitely be correct in this situation since it would only cost you two more bets to see the showdown if you decided there was enough of a chance that your opponent was bluffing. In no-limit you are putting your whole stack in jeopardy with no real way of knowing where you stand. Even if you decide to fold to the check-rarise you could be making a huge error by laying down the best hand in a pot where you could've checked back the turn, and picked off some extra bluff money as well on the end. Remember, think pot control, as hands like A-A, K-K, and A-K top pair are awesome pre-flop but lose a lot of value when the board becomes cluttered.

Another situation I want to address is when you flop top pair with a medium or bad kicker from the blinds. This is generally an unprofitable situation and you should be looking to either fold your hand to some heat or get to a showdown with the possibility of a value bet thrown in on the turn or river depending on the board, number of opponents, and exactly what texture your hand is. I see plenty of players leading out with something like 9-8 on a 9-6-3 into three opponents from the big blind. This can be an okay play against tight players, since many over-cards can come on the turn, but in general I think you are better off just checking and calling an aggressive opponent or checking and folding against anyone in the middle. The real problem with these hands is that you will be out of position for the duration of the hand, and lots of bad things can happen that force you to either concede the pot or make a very tough decision. For instance, if you lead out on the flop and are called in one or more spots, what do you do when a brick comes on the turn? What about an over-card? I've found that the best players try to avoid sticky situations where they have potential to make a mistake, and I think it's good advice for any no-limit player to follow.

As I said earlier, there are times when you'll be looking to get it all in the middle with a big pair after the flop. The first and easiest to recognize is when the pot is raised and re-raised pre-flop in a head up situation. If you have something like A-A or K-K and the flop comes rags, you should strongly consider taking a line that will get all of the money in as soon as possible. This is all dependent on whether you were the initial raiser or the re-raiser pre-flop and also the type of opponent you are against. These are situations where you can treat your hand like a monster, as your opponent could have any one of a number of smaller over-pairs, or even a missed hand like A-K. I like check-raising all-in on the flop if my opponent has the initiative, as you will pick up another bet from missed over-cards and also make it easier for someone to feel committed with J-J or Q-Q. A second instance would be against an aggressive opponent or on a board with a lot of draws. Plenty of times a solid player has check-raised me on a board with lots of draws heads-up, and I didn't hesitate moving all-in only to watch him get away from his hand instantly.

Overall, over-pairs and top pairs are hands that are built for limit poker. No limit is a game of sets, straights, and flushes, and if you're one of the players out there who consistently gets involved in big pots with one pair, I'm willing to bet your bankroll isn't very happy with you. Hopefully these thoughts help but remember not to conform too closely to them as every hand is unique in some way.

This article was published at an earlier date on PokerPages.com and is being rerun due to popular demand.