Overcards - A Compilation

loyalguard · #1 03-02-2006, 10:00 PM

Overcards - A Compilation

Introduction

Welcome to another episode of loyalguard puts together a compilation of great posts by people who play poker way better than he does! This is my 3rd & 1/2 compilation in the last couple of months highlighting some notable posts that have been made in the micro-limit forum since the last archive was made. The topic I have chosen for this installment is overcards. Why? Well, I think SSHE says it best:

"Playing overcards is tricky. Many players who have studied and played seriously for years still do not feel at ease with them."
-p. 235 of Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller et al.

So, in order to build on the concepts in SSHE, I have compiled some threads that give good guidance (or at least good arguments) on how to play overcards. The links you see below are by no means exhaustive. But, I feel they contain some pertinent lessons.

The compilation is organized in the following sections: Playing Overcards on the Flop, Continuing with Overcards on the Turn, Decisions with Overcards on the River, General Issues with Overcards, and Specific Hand Examples. This last section features several examples for specific hands that flopped as overcards as requested by a couple of posters on this forum. Each link includes a short description of the pertinent material within. For more information about how this and my other compilations were created, see the "Behind the Scenes" section.

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Playing Overcards on the Flop

Overcard challenge
This is the grand daddy of overcards threads. If you have not read it then READ IT NOW! Only the cruelest of kitten killers shouldn't read this thread (and even they really should!)

Overcards on Paired Flop
Should hero bet this flop with overcards? Survey says...yes.

Raising overcards on the flop to clean up our outs+get a free card
This discussion emphasizes the importance of reads and pot size in deciding whether to invest in your overcards.

Overcards
Do you find playing overcards too difficult? Why not just fold them on the flop every time? Here's the answer.

AK Overcards, pre-flop bettor raises QQ flop
You lead your overcards and get raised. Now what?

King high and to the river we go...
Another led, raised, now what? scenario.

KQo in position
Your overcards are bet into and you have a decision to make.

Big Slick in the Big Blind
How do you decide if a flop is bad for your overcards? Here is some good advice.

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Continuing with Overcards on the Turn

is this a good turn bet to build pot or am i overaggressieve
You've bet or raised your overcards on the flop and need to decide whether to bet the turn.

UI overcards--check the turn?
An important part of overcards is knowing how to properly discount them.

Proper turn raise?
Your overcards have been bet into on the flop and turn...it's decision time.

QJo EMP in a Tightish Game
So your overcards actually spiked top pair on the turn, now what?

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Decisions with Overcards on the River

Request for hands: Ace high makes it to showdown
Remember the grand daddy of overcards post above? Here is his fraternal twin who specializes in showdowns. Another must read.

Push the overcards??
Here we see that your decision to value bet overcards on the river has a lot do to how you play the turn.

AK river play.
Here we see that being able to put our opponent on an accurate range of hands is crucial to river play with overcards.

KQo in a battle of the blinds
Your overcards made it to the river but now you're bet into...hmmm...

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General Issues with Overcards

6m: Calling down with overcards?
Here we see how important reading the board factors into playing overcards.

I hate overcards!
Well...they hate you too! Good stuff in this thread on how to bring out the overcard L[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]ve.

overcard pot odds?
Title says it all.

Coordinated Boards
This (short) thread isn't about overcards but since board coordination is so important in evaluating the strength of overcards, I thought it would make for a good addition.

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Specific Hand Examples

The reason why I included this section is because as I was searching threads I noticed that a lot of the links had AK as the hole cards that flopped as overcards. So, I wanted to make sure that some of the other hands that frequently flop overcards were included as well. Also, a couple of posters asked for these hands specifically...so...here are as many of a few selected hands that I could (easily) find that flopped as overcards (some of these maybe repeats from above):

KQ

KQo From MP2--Limp Is Raised Behind Then Misses Flop
1/2 full, KQo in EP
KQs
KQo in position
Was this too weak? KQs
KQo after a RR PF
KQ first
How would you play this? KQo
An awful example of how to play KQs
KQs vs TAG raise.

KJ

KJs OOP vs possible TAG
KJo from BB short handed
Hrrm, KQo hand. And KJo.
KJs versus raised pot
KJo
Another KJs hand
KJs
KJs vs sLAG 3-bettor

KT

KT overcards
KTo from SB on a coordinated flop

Summary

I hope you find this compilation useful. If you did and you haven't seen my previous compilations, I invite you to take a look: The Best of the Gerber Baby – A Shillx Compilation and Protecting Your Hand - A Compilation

I also invite you to post any of your own favorite overcards hands in this thread along with any feedback on the content and/or organization of these compilations and any suggestions for future compilations you would like to see. Thanks!

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Behind the Scenes of This Compilation

So, how did I make this compilation? I ran multiple searches in the 2+2 search function using the following search terms:

+overcards
+miss +flop
+whiff

For the specific hand links I used the parameters:
+KQ -Re:

For each search (except the specific hand searches) I further limited results by using the names of different posters on this forum in the username field. I also made sure that I searched back to at least July 2005 (the date of the last archive). To learn more about these techniques, see my post on: Session Review and Forum Searching Tips & Tricks. The total of all the result sets was ~1,200 individual posts that were further reduced to the thread links above by manual review.

As I stated in the introduction, this is by no means a perfect search methodology and will not return every hand posted here dealing with overcards. But, I am fairly confident that the quality of the final links gives you an accurate representation of the material on the topic at hand. Thanks again for all the great feedback, support, and advice!

-loyalguard