Playing Over Pairs Post Flop

After the flop, an over pair is a pretty good hand for you to be holding. An over pair is when you have a pocket pair and there are no cards on the flop that are of equal or greater denomination. This is a very good position for you to be in with your pocket pair because, unless there is a potential straight of a potential flush on the board, you probably have the best hand. For an example, assume that you have J♥ J♣, pocket jacks, and the flop is 2♠ 6♦ 10♥. In this example, you not only have an over pair with your pocket jacks, but there is not very much in the way of a draw threatening you on the flop. The best drawing hands that there could be to this board would be an inside straight draw or a runner flush draw. In either of these two scenarios, you would be in extremely good shape.

Is it Good Move to Slow Play the Over Pair?

Slow playing an over pair, especially one lower than pocket aces, is usually much too dangerous a move to make any sense to try in most circumstances. When your over pair is anything less than a pair of pocket aces, the turn card could bring a over card to your hand. With a pair of pocket aces as your over card, you can be assured that when another card comes out on the turn, you will still have the top pair and an over pair. This is not true with a pocket pair lower than aces. If you have the pocket jacks that were referred to in the previous example, then any queen, king, or ace will seriously devalue your hand. Any of those 3 over cards would, by themselves, make your pocket jacks become the second best hand.

How to Get Maximum Value with an Over Pair Post Flop

Getting maximum value for your hands is one of the most critical skills that a successful poker player can develop. Knowing and understanding what the maximum value is going to be is an even more important skill to have. In the case of the over pair that you have after the flop, the maximum value could very possibly be that no other player calls your bet, and you get to take the pot down right then and there. The reason for this is that your hand can so easily be beaten that the amount of money you would win in taking the pot down right here would be considerably more than if your hand becomes beaten on later streets and you take down nothing at all. In fact, you lose a few more bets.

Having an Over Pair Against the Top Pair

This is the best possible situation that you can find yourself to be in. Using the earlier example, if your pocket jacks are up against a player that is holding an A 10, that player will give you a lot of action because he has the top pair and the top kicker. Even though you will get some action from this hand, you still want to push the action and, possibly, 3 bet because if this other player were to catch any 10 or ace, then his hand would all of a sudden have your pocket jacks dominated. That means that he would have 5 outs to make a hand that would beat you, the 2 remaining 10s and the 3 remaining aces.