Holding Top Pair On A Straight Board
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Everyone has warning bells go off in their heads when three to a straight are on board and they don’t have a reasonable shot at making a straight. But you might not know exactly how dangerous these boards can be. As it turns out, if you have top pair with no chance to improve to a straight yourself, you’d better watch out.
The first problem is that holding the made straight on the flop is not too hard to accomplish. That’s because there are 16 available combos of each of the straight hands. For instance, on a 987 board, you can have JT one of 16 ways, T6 one of 16 ways, and 65 one of 16 ways for 48 total made straight combos. (For comparison, your can have AA only 6 ways, and A9 only 12 ways.) Say your opponent gives you a lot of action on the flop, and you think she has either two pair, a set, or a made straight. And say you think your opponent wouldn’t play T6 offsuit… just suited. Under those circumstances, it’s 50-50 whether your opponent has the straight or not! She has 9 ways to make each two pair (27 total combos), 3 ways to make each set (9 combos), 16 ways to make the top or bottom end of the straight (32 combos), and 4 ways to make T6s. That makes 36 non-straight combos and 36 straight combos. Indeed, if you hold 65, the bottom end of the straight, you are only about 50-50 if you get all-in against an opponent who has either a straight, a set, or two pair (assuming that your opponent would play only the suited version of T6). You can hold a straight and not even be a favorite when you get all the money in on the flop!
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Tags: limit-holdem, no-limit-holdem, poker, poker-tools, straight board, top-pair
For instance, on a 987 board, you can have JT one of 16 ways, T6 one of 16 ways, and 65 one of 16 ways for 48 total made straight combos. (For comparison, your can have AA only 6 ways, and AT only 12 ways.)
Did you mean that there are only 12 combos of A9, or T9, or some other specific top-pair hand?