Playing When You Flop Two Overcards
Overcards are cards higher than anything on the board. Let’s consider an example. You have
K♦ Q♥
and the flop comes
9♣ 6♥ 2♦
You have two overcards - can you call a bet? Can you bet? Many poker experts say that you can bet or call a bet in this sit¬uation. However, it takes a lot of experience and knowledge to know when you can play with just overcards. A bet with two overcards is usually a semi-bluff (you’re hoping to win the pot right there, but have chances of improving to the best hand). Most low-limit games are sufficiently loose and passive that a semi-bluff won’t work, so betting is probably not correct. We believe you are not losing much by folding in this situation if there’s a bet ahead of you. If it’s checked to you, take a free card and hope you turn top pair. In the situation above, if a queen or king falls on the turn, you probably have the best hand and can bet (or even raise).
Expert players are able to make some money with two overcards, but you are not giving up much by dropping them unless you have other possibilities (which we discuss below). Misplaying those overcards once or twice will cost you more than you could make by playing them correctly a dozen times. The problem with overcards is that you can win a little or lose a lot. Most of the time, you’ll have to throw them away on the turn because they don’t improve. Therefore, to make a profit with them, you must play aggressively when they do hit on the turn. If you pick the wrong time to do this, you may be raising with the worst hand. This is an area where you can improve your re¬sults by limiting your mistakes. Until you have a lot of hold’em under your belt and understand your opponents well, you can best limit your mistakes by staying out of these situations.
When you can play overcards
There are some situations in which you can call a bet with over¬cards:
Backdoor flush or straight possibilities. For instance, you have A♠-T♠ and the flop comes 9♥-6♠-2♣. Now you can call a bet since an ace or ten may give you the best hand, and another spade on the turn gives you the nut flush draw. If you’re hoping to make a backdoor straight, the turn should possibly give you an open end draw to the nuts. For instance, you have Q♣-J♣ and the flop comes 9♥-4♠-3♦. Again, you could make top pair on the turn, and a ten will give you a draw to two different nut straights. The higher your cards, the better, so if you do make the top pair on the turn, you will have fewer chances for an overcard to your top pair falling on the river.
A-K overcards on the flop
AK (often called “Big Slick”) is one of the most difficult hands to play if it “misses” the flop. You will either make top pair or two overcards with it, so you often find yourself wanting to con¬tinue with it, almost regardless of the flop. Do not fall victim to this trap. If you’re going to call with two overcards, AK is the hand with which to do it, but choose your places carefully. Look for situations where you’re virtually certain that hitting your pair will be good, you have backdoor draws, or suspect that an oppo¬nent is betting a draw. Furthermore, it is almost never correct to call a bet on the turn with an unpaired AK, unless you’ve picked up some other draw.
Once in a great while, you can raise with AK when it doesn’t pair on the flop, particularly if you suspect that the bettor doesn’t have a good hand. On rare occasions, this may cause the bettor to fold immediately, or at least get you a free turn card. If you are re-raised, or the bettor calls and then bets the turn, you are done with the hand. Realize that this is a deceptive play, and such plays have limited use in most low-limit games. Many players can not give up AK until the river fails to pair them; a classic tip-off is when somebody raises pre-flop and then passively calls a bet on the flop. If you detect such behavior, be prepared to bet hands that you might otherwise check on the turn; don’t give the two overcards a free chance to beat you.
A word of warning
In tighter games, you can use the flop to decide the chances that you’re up against two pair already. However, in a no fold’em hold’em game, many players are capable of showing you any two cards. For instance, in a tighter hold’em game you’d be more inclined to play overcards with a flop of T-5-2 since it would be unlikely somebody already had two pair. In lower limit games, you will see people win big pots with T5. This is another reason why it’s a marginal play to continue with just overcards in low-limit hold’em games.
You will routinely see your opponents continue playing (even calling a raise cold) with two overcards to the flop. You will also occasionally be sitting on the sidelines watching when your overcards would have made the best hand. Have faith, and throw them away the next time, too. For low-limit hold’em players, flopping two overcards is a marginal case of our next topic: what to do when the flop misses you completely.
Playing When the Flop Misses You
In completing our discussion of how to play on the flop, we need to remind you that this, unfortunately, will be the most frequent result of the flop: you get a very small piece of it, or less.
You’ll flop second or bottom pair with no overcards. Three to a Hush or straight and nothing else. One overcard. Your opponents will routinely call a bet in this situation, hoping to pick up a little more on the turn. This is where decisive action can save you a lot of money:
Fold and be done with it.
We have discussed essentially every case in which you can play beyond the flop. Every other time, your pre-flop investment is gone. Forget about it. Watch the rest of the hand. See how your opponents play, figure out what you would do in a similar situa¬tion. Get up and stretch, drink a glass of water. However, do not just throw in a loose call on the flop to see what happens next. This discipline alone will take you a long way toward becoming a winning hold’em player.