[dizzle98]

Finally someone who has explained the poker the way I've been playing it for years. There are two major points so far that seem to have been neglected.

1. The average winning hand in poker is two pair. If you have aces, you will only ever have one pair or trips if you hit your outs. Therefore even your 2 outs will most likely not even give you a winner. If the board pairs then your opponent also has that pair which means it cancels out and you still just have one pair. You can NEVER make two pair when you've got a pocket pair in your hand...two unpaired cards can always make two pair.

2. It is impossible to overstate the importance of your two unpaired cards being suited. Basic mathematics indicates that you take your number of outs, double it, and multiply it by the number of cards remaing. So if you have 8 outs going to the river you are 16%. However lets take this to preflop thinking.

AA vs KQo. AA has 2 outs with 5 cards to come (5*2*2=20%). KQ has 6 (6*5*2=60%) And 20% of the time you hit your KQ outs the AA will hit their outs and win anyways (20%*60%=12%). 60%-12%=48%. So actually the KQ is a 48-52 underdog to the aces, but basically a coinflip.

Now assume the KQ is suited. There are only 4 suits so you have a 25% chance of making a flush. Take the 48% from above and add 25%. You're now a 73-27% favorite. Suited cards people...suited cards.

And yes this is my first post...frankly because reading through the forums I thought you all sucked at poker until I found this thread. It's good to see someone who has a real grasp on the math and realizes that a pocket pair is a coinflip at best, and completely dominated if your opponent's cards are suited.