Cooler Hands or NOT?

Sup ppls,

I've been playing poker for about 5 yrs now. Far from a pro, but far from a fish.

2 of the most difficult situtations for me to get away from is:

1) Holding KK and having someone with AA.
2) Set over Set.

I know that probably 99% of us will go broke in these situtations because they are what people call "cooler hands". Being a student of the game and constantly trying to imporve my skills, I truely believe that the best of the best can get away from these hands, and thats what separates the best from the rest.

Do you guys have any tips or opinions on what to look out for in these situtations? Whats the best approach to take? Ultiamtely, what precautions should/can i take and be aware of so that I can do my best to not bust out on hands like these. All feed back is great.

Thanks,

wlee013

Yeah, when you start talking about "getting away" from hands like that, you're most likely looking at mistakenly folding the best hand for no good reason out of sheer paranoia most of the time.

Even when you do lose, you made the right decision.

The best of the best don't get away from these hands. Neither should you, unless they flip over their cards.

Echoing everyone else - nobody gets away from these. The best players lose stacks in these situations, just like the rest of us.

Learning this is a huge step forward in anyone's poker education - many players think there must be a way to avoid losing a stack in these situations, and the fact is there isn't.

Search the forum for threads related to reading hand ranges for players (i.e., Villain will make that play holding TT+, AQ+), rather than trying to guess specifically which hand Villain is holding (omg, he must have AA!!!), and you'll get a sense of why there's no magical way to avoid losing in these situations, if you want to be profitable.

^^this.....almost impossible to get away from these hands....you should figure your golden ......but....just maybe...if you could find a cheap crystal ball or something....lol

I love it when things like this happen actually. There is nothing that you can do when this happens you know

I learned to be careful with these hands and always watch the table card. As hard as it may be to fold the hand, sometimes it's the best move you can make.

Sometimes you just can't get away
And more importantly sometimes you shouldn't get away from them.

If you start getting paranoid about your opponents hands you might as well fold all your hands and stop playing

Almost impossible to get away, I just had this happen where I lost my stack with a set of deuces I made on the turn as my opponent had a set of kings on the flop. The clues where he raised preflop, and then checked the flop. I checked behind and was unlucky enough to hit my set on the turn. At that point I was gone... nothing I could have done about it...I think if you lay down sets youll lose more money in the long run as youll be laying them down to semi bluffs or just straight bluffs.

I think you might be thinking results oriented......there really isnt a way to get out of these situations....thats why there is a word for it (cooler). They only way I'm not calling/pushing there is if the cards are turned over and there aren't pot odds to make that call....BTW, good luck on finding a situation where calling for one out is profitable. As to what the first response said, if you start folding in this situation you are taking away from your possible profit in the long run. Ask yourself this, how many times were you excited to be stacking in that situation?...you thought you were a huuuge favorite, and most of the time, you are...you just remember the bad beats (just like the annuoncers tell you on almost every single televised wsop event), but not the ones you won where you were ahead or "should have won"....A better suggestion might be to start working on not spewing and pot controlling those aces and kings etc.. when they didnt hit a set. That will save you so much more money in the end.

You can get away from these in live games, when you can get reads and tells. But online, you're gonna pay them off. When you have KK, you can't tell if somebody is raising with QQ, AK, or AA. When you hit a set, you can't tell if somebody hit a bigger set, or is just making a continuation bet. You just have to play the long-term percentages and eat the losses for the benefit of all the times you win with those hands when you hang in there.

Its virtually impossible to get away from these hands.. there are rare exceptions where the villain plays so tight that you can safely fold. These situations / villains are extremely rare though.