I keep losing to sets/trips when I have two pair and there’s no flush or straight on the board. It’s so hard to sniff out sets/trips. You can see flushes,straights,and full houses on the board, but sets/trips are sooooo freaking hidden. I’m always losing to them. Any pro tips? Or strategies? This is my first time at this site, I have no poker friends and I keep losing to sets/trips. anyone how you deal with that?
Trips are unlikely cases, but sets are even more "hidden" and disguised - especially if the opponent(s) don't feature obvious betting patterns such as betting the River big. There really is no "pro tip" I think. This approach is the closest I got to one existing...
Always, throughout a hand, I'm (almost instinctively after using this mindset for so long) aware of what the best possible hands are. A Royal Flush isn't possible on every hand, so this is more useful than it sounds. If we can identify the strongest hands someone could potentially hold (top of their range), then we can "plug that in" and see if we believe it is consistent with how they've played the hand. If it isn't consistent, then we can more-or-less eliminate the possibility of them having those hole cards (capped range) whereas if it is consistent, then we continue or not based on the situation and how many other likely holdings we beat.
Whenever the board pairs, the chance of someone making a Full House is now somewhat greater, for instance. It doesn't mean someone was lucky enough to get one, but our "set radar" should be pinging as possible.
Let us invent a fictional board runout of:
Ad 6c 2s Jh 6s
What are the absolute best hands possible here? Four of a Kind via pocket 6 hole cards is the best (although still very unlikely), but many combinations of Full Houses also exist. Any A6, any 62, any J6, AA, JJ, 22 all make a Full House. There are more combinations possible since the board paired (sixes).
Being aware of the best possible hands doesn't alter the math, but you have a better idea of what the "best hands" look like and we can evaluate if it makes sense.
In this example, with the board runout above, let us say that the opponent open-limped (didn't open-raise). Many opponents don't trap this way (while some trap this way almost exclusively! It is important to know the opponent!), so if they didn't raise preflop, perhaps we can discount the best value hands which would have raised. They are now less likely to be holding AA or JJ; this eliminates some of their options on the River.
On a smaller scale, what are they representing? When they bet is important too (as is position which I intentionally left out above, but we'll come back to that). If they bet big on the Flop for instance, it looks like they are representing some Ax hand. They may also be representing 66 or 22, but some positions at the table may not include these hands (based on the player playstyle as well).
Now let us end with table position. Generally (as solid players observe), players will play wider (more possible hand combinations/wider range) in position (good places like BTN or CO) and play a narrower range of hands in earlier position (bad places like UTG or UTG+1 position). The blinds usually play a wide range of hands too (due to pot
odds they are getting). What this means is that if our villain (opponent), in the hand, is playing UTG and us BTN, then their range isn't as likely to hold a 6 or a 2 in it. Based on our playstyle on the BTN, we might hold them as 66 and 22 are in most BTN ranges, but might be a fold preflop UTG.
We got a bit in-depth with ranges, but the key takeaway here is the little "pro tip" of assessing the best possible hand in any given situation and similarly the best possible hand they are likely to have; this way we aren't caught completely off guard by a strong possible hand like sets - which may otherwise be tougher to spot
