[ballen]

Here's something to think about when you have nothing but an overcard draw.

By now, we should know what the term "Domination" means when it pertains to holdem. Basically, if two hands share one of their high cards preflop, whoever has the worst kicker is "dominated" and will usually come in second-best to the other hand. But what the heck is reverse domination? If a dominated hand pairs his kicker, then the tables quickly change and the hand that previously dominated has now become dominated.

To give an example, say you're on the button with AKo. You're playing in a loose game full of the "any face, any ace" crowd. It's 3 limpers to you and you raise. Both blinds and all limpers call. Flop comes down 2 3 9 rainbow. You think, "Darn, I missed. Well my overcards want to see the turn with this ragged flop and with the pot giving me a good price to draw" But wait, what did your opponents call with? In the worst case scenario, one of the players has A3o and another has K9s. You are drawing dead now and you don't even have a clue! You can catch top pair on the turn and throw away a good number of bets on a hand that is drawing to a two-outer. Granted, this is the worst possible scenario, but it's definitely something to keep in my when you're only drawing to offsuit overcards.

[chris]

I cant tell you how many times this has happened to me. Since so many people play A anything, thats when you get people hitting ther 2 pair, when that A hits. Ive lost alot of money raising A-K NL, flop A rags hits and you think you have best hand, only to find out someone called a big raise with A-3 and hit it.

[johnf]

As I'm gaining expereience in poker(low limits only), I'm finding that Lee Jones' advise about overcards in low limit poker makes more and more sense. In his book he says that if all you have is overcards post flop, think about dumping the hand in the face of any pressure. It is exactly as Benzine and bad-beat-kid say. You will save a lot more bets doing that than you will win with these types of hands.

I'm sure that there are situations that you feel may be an exception and this does not apply as easily at mid to high limits, but it is a good general rule for low limit play.

I play mostly .25/.50 and .50/1 limit tables now and I do not get the warm fuzzies when I have only overcards on the flop. Lately I have been pushing more than I should with these hands and I have payed for it but it is hard to let these hands go all the time. I have vowed to heed Mr. Jones' advice more.

[razor]

somewhere... I read some good advice about calling with overcards...

it said you should be more likely to call with a King overcard than an Ace overcard for this very reason... people are far less likely to play K-X than A-X... and to save even more hassles... I might only call with overcards if they are Q-J, Q-10, J-10...

it is just much much less common for people to play Q-x...

[lork]

This is actually good advice for high limit games too. I have no problem dumping AK in a 15-30 game, but sometimes I re-raise or call, but when I do I'm playinmg the player. And I never do this against a crowd.

But folding hands you have raised preflop when you miss is one of the things that really make up to a lot of money over the long run.

[louis]

That's the sole reason I don't raise preflop - things change so dramatically that you might immediately be regretting your raise if nothing comes over on the flop for you.

Thats good advice in general - that is actually the first time I've seen that terminology used, so thanks for that too.