The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

There are some hands, no matter what your opponent does, you will go broke on. Take, as an easy example, a player who raises all-in while you hold pocket Aces. You're calling it, doesn't matter if it's a large or short stack, if someone has already called before you or how many chips you have in front of you. If somehow their pocket 8s catches another 8 on the flop, it was just extremely bad luck. You put your money in with the best of it and in the end, that's all you can do. (If you're playing a satellite or you're "on the bubble", that's a different story, but for now, we're talking about the middle or early stages of a tournament).

Imagine for a second a multi-way pot is developing while you hold J-10 suited. If you can limp in for cheap, this is a great hand to get to try to catch a flush or straight and win lots of chips. So we'll say no one raised and the flop comes:

J-5-J rainbow

Aside from flopping the aforementioned straight or flush, this board can't get much better for you. With no straight or flushes for other players to draw on, this is an excellent flop for your hand. Think back to how many times you flopped three of a kind. It hasn't happened much because the chances are only 1 in 73, or 1.35%.

So if the betting costs you all of your chips when your opponent flips over pocket 5s for a full house, well, dem's da breaks.

I personally am not a good enough player to know whether my J-10 is the second best hand in this situation. I'll give in to more likely explanations, such as my opponent holding an over-pair to an outright bluff, before I think my three of a kind is no good.

Landing these types of hands doesn't happen often, so if you've got a strong hand and you're getting action, don't be afraid of it. With the blinds creeping up on you all the time, you always have to accumulate chips when you can. Play these hands like you're holding the best one, and more times than not, you WILL be holding the best hand and you'll have big stacks of chips in front of you to prove it.