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?

Originally Posted by Bigfox23

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?

Hello there ! Welcome to the forum ! Good luck in the games ! https://www.cardschat.com/forum/lear...course-455641/ https://www.cardschat.com/forum/card...s-info-452874/

Originally Posted by Bigfox23

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?

Hi and welcome to cardschat!

I'm going to move this from intros to somewhere you'll get more replies...

One way to stop losing to sets/trips would be to make straights/flushes...

You're right 'threat of the set' is dangerous and can be difficult to identify.

Often when you make a strong, but lesser, hand against set/trips (such as top two pair) it will be difficult to avoid losing a chunk of change.

I'm not sure personally I've got any particularly good suggestions for you here besides to retain a sense of caution when you make one of these strong hands, which are losing to three of a kind.

I imagine this will also be addressed at some point in cardschat's poker course...

Become a winning poker player in 30 days.

All the best,

Originally Posted by Bigfox23

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?

You need to keep an eye on your opponent. I'm always in good shape. I drop two pairs if they don't turn into a full house on the River. Either I reset it earlier if it goes Allin. I don't want an accidental loss. Still, I often get caught in a set. Here it is important to understand that he has a strong hand or is bluffing.

Everyone loses money or chips to sets, thats why they are such great hands to hit. That being said the skill lies in knowing, when for instance two pair is strong enough to stack off, and when you need to either pot control or even let it go. This depend on preflop action, stack to pot ratio, numbers of people involved, and the strength of your two pair. Having 42 on A429Q is not the same as having AK on AK9.

It is necessary to abstract from the fact that a specific combination is needed. Instead, just play according to the circumstances.

maybe try betting pot on the flop or just bet pot preflop

This is a big part of the strategy of poker,,,How to minimize your loses as opposed to maximizing your wins,,,it comes with experience.

I get caught all the time too. The biggest tell I've noticed though is betting. Most folks are going to bet BIG on the river, if they haven't already.

I don't think you can do nothing about it. You must be alerted for signs like if an opponents is very passive and at some point show extremely aggression(check raise) in a dry flop like K 7 5 the something smells here. Of course we can't fold our Kx or an over pair in a situation like that but be alerted.

Most importantly we should remember the preflop action , I mean most of the times the small , mid pocket pairs are a good flat in position or in the SB so maybe things like that but still we can't play scared , sometimes if the opponent has it then we can do nothing.

Originally Posted by akmost

I don't think you can do nothing about it. You must be alerted for signs like if an opponents is very passive and at some point show extremely aggression(check raise) in a dry flop like K 7 5 the something smells here. Of course we can't fold our Kx or an over pair in a situation like that but be alerted.

Most importantly we should remember the preflop action , I mean most of the times the small , mid pocket pairs are a good flat in position or in the SB so maybe things like that but still we can't play scared , sometimes if the opponent has it then we can do nothing.

So true. Small/mid pocket pairs don't "usually" come alive till they make sets, and that only happens post flop.

Welcome to the forum.

I mostly play micro stakes, and I don't respect the skill of most of my opponents. So I easily fall into the trap of disguised monsters and pay them off. Happened to me in a chardschat freeroll just this week. Sounds like a big leak in my game.. I just chalk it up to bad luck and fire up another game.

Originally Posted by Bigfox23

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?

Welcome to the forum, I agree that sets can be tough to spot & in a lot of situations 2 pair is a potentially profitable hand. Not to belabor the obvious, but anytime the board pairs trips are a very real, not hidden, possibility & unless you are holding TP/TK, higher 2 pair hands also have to be considered. Opponents response to your betting prior to the river & your observations on your opponents play are a couple of things to consider.

Originally Posted by Bigfox23

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?

Stopping this from happening not not possible but there maybe time they are telling you they have a big hand and you are not listening. You really need to listen to the story the player is telling you and ask if that a story that make sense for this player.

Example, you have aces and raise and get called by the BB. Flop is 944, You bet and they call. The turn is a king and you bet and the min raise you. Your showing strength and they called your flop and check raise on the turn. what do you think they have? What type of player are they? this is how you can figure it out. Lets sat there loose but very passive. There in the BB so a 9 and a 4 is possible for the flop call. On a king they checked raised you. Does that sound like a 9 or even a king. Could they have a 4? yes they could. A set of nines makes sense too as check raising on the flop there would allow you to fold something like AQo. While folding here with aces is not easy there is one thing I said that should help. I said he was passive. If you look at the situation this way you can see where there is a possibility that your behind a big hand. Yes it can be a bluff but and it will happen, you just need to look and make a calculated decision.

Originally Posted by Bigfox23

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

Hidden hands are coming no matter what we do. We can only maximize our winnings when we have them, and minimum our losses when we don't. That is the winning formula.

Pairs and 2 pair hands are vulnerable, yet they are the hands we will have most often. Equity is everything, and we have to build our equity estimating skills and play accordingly.

Good luck and God Bless.

Online want to deal you sets and trips, so that they can riverr@pe by giving the other player a straight or flush, imo. At cheat on line, you're more likely to lose with flopped set than if you chase with K or something. GL

Well this is something very hard to spot , but you should analyse the betting pattern of your adverse . But still this remains hard to spot , however the card on the table could make it easier for you sometimes to spot it .

This is one of the few areas of poker where experience indeed helps a little bit. You start to recognise situations and board textures where that check-raise just doesn't make much sense unless it's a set. Of course, good players are bluffing sometimes too which make them hard to play against.

That being said, if you never lose to a hidden set you're for sure playing way too tight. Aim to see the bigger picture in every hand you play, and if you lose to a set here and there don't worry too much about it. At the end of the day, you're getting paid with your sets to I'm sure.

Originally Posted by bakang

Online want to deal you sets and trips, so that they can riverr@pe by giving the other player a straight or flush, imo. At cheat on line, you're more likely to lose with flopped set than if you chase with K or something. GL

Take a moment to reread what you wrote. Then delete it. No one is coming out to get you. Sites have no incentive to deal you bad beat after bad beat. In fact, because next to every other player has a huge database anything crooked would fall through the cracks nearly instantly.

Its possible that you are not raising enough and you are letting others in cheap with a chance to hit trips. Generally the more hands you play and the more players that are in the hand them more you get out-drawed on- so to prevent this you can play a stronger range and raise more.

to win trips, you have to collect a flush or a straight can be a full house, it's corny, but there are no other ways)

Over time you learn to assess certain situations better and that it doesn't always just depend on what you have in hand but also how the opponent plays and which cards you get on the table.

Everything is going too smoothly, i feel like that, i have my processes pretty much unconciously in background. IE. Not what you call intellectual.

I get this feeling that I got this person like, ready to fold the stuff. Yet, there is this unnerving energy coming from player. It is not their reaction time, nor their betting, It is as tangible as feeling creeps in haunted manors full or crackheads.

This is not helpful propably. Just a view into the brain of hamfisted, sometimes cunning savage.

It is part of the variance nothing else. .. it usually happens to close and continue playing if your plays are correct in the long run you will win more than you lose. .