Middle/Bottom Pair
Middle or bottom pair is when you hold a pair but there is another card on the board
higher than your pair. For example, you hold JJ, QT, or A8, with a flop of KT8. One
of the more common mistakes made by weak players is drawing too often with poor
pot odds to middle or bottom pair.
You need very good pot odds to play middle or bottom pair when you suspect an
opponent has at least top pair. Your hand is 8 to 1 to improve on the next card and
only 23 to 1 if you have a pocket pair. With five outs, you are getting slightly better
odds than a gut-shot straight draw, hut you are drawing to a hand that is not nearly
as strong:
-
You could be drawing practically dead to an opponent's set or two pair.
- An opponent's hand could counterfeit your kicker card, giving him two pair, a
straight, or a flush.
- You could hit your card on the turn, only to lose on the river by an opponent
hitting one of his outs to a flush, straight, three of a kind, or two higher pair.
Drawing to a middle or bottom pair is risky when you only have a 1 in 9 chance of
improving, and you aren't even sure if that will be good enough to win. You usually
need pot odds much better than 8 to 1 to justify all these risks, In addition, only
consider drawing when your call will close the bet-ting, as a raise behind you will
generally ruin your pot odds.
When you do draw, you want to give yourself the best chance of winning when you
improve to two pair. Holding a kicker card above the highest card on the flop
improves your chances of winning the hand. When you hit an overcard kicker
higher than your opponent's two cards and he only has a pair, he only has two outs
to beat you on the river. When you have a low kicker, your opponent has eight outs.
We will discuss this concept in more detail later in the chapter.
You should be folding middle or bottom pair often, but not always. There are four
scenarios when you can play your hand:
- You feel there is a good chance that you hold a better hand than your
opponents.
- You have a kicker higher than the highest card on the table and are getting
sufficient pot odds to draw to a hand that you feel could finish as the best
hand.
- Your kicker is weak, but the pot is giving excellent pot odds to draw.
- Your hand is probably not the best, but you are able to justify a semi-bluff bet
or raise by the combination of the probability that you could get your
opponent to fold the best hand, with the probability that you could improve to
the best hand.
Note that middle or bottom pair is sometimes the best hand. In these cases you can
sometimes be the aggressor. Let's look now at strategies to consider for each type
of flop.
NEXT...High or Low Pair
