facing a surprise

[aimar21]

I'm talking about pocket pairs. I really can't read if someone has a pocket pair and the dealer gives me the possible best hand all the time so I can lose my chips. It happened to me lots of times. I had two pairs no flush or straight possibility, the guy slow plays his weird set and kicks my ass. I have a last card flush but that last card is the second king on the board, I get happy but that king is the worst card to be drawn in the river for me because it completes my flush as well as my opponent's full house because he has pocket 9's. It became a curse and I'm afraid I will start folding my nuts everytime then go crazy when my opponent wins the pot with just a pair. I really need help on spotting pocket pairs. cheers

[GaF]

Re: facing a surprise An underpair to an overpair is a 4-1 underdog pre flop, HOWEVER key is implied odds - if stack sizes are big enough to pay you off if you hit trips, then it is good to play them and a great way to bust large pocket pairs for their entire stack (as you say, it is very difficult to read). A pair is between 7-1 and 8-1 to become trips on the flop - so long as you believe you can get this from your opponent on average, then it is worth playing (so if you and your opponent both have stacks about 15x what you have to put in to call pre flop). Early in a tournament I will mostly play ANY pair from ANY position in an unraised pot, indeed I'll often call big raises from tight players if I still have the implied odds.....