setting Jh Js 4s 2s Ah hu oop

I had it against givememyleg today and set it like this:





How would you set it? Some would set the 3 spades together in back, right?

Assuming you are first to act and/or your cards are all live, I'd set it similarly or go JJ4 on back and A2 in middle.

I generally never break up pairs for 3-card draws unless it's something amazing like AKJsss
and I generally never put pairs in the middle unless I have something like KKAQ

yeah I like the way you set it except maybe flipping the 4 and 2 like baudib said, but I'm not sure if it matters too much.

1st to act, with 3 to suit, you've got a 55% chance to make your flush. So I don't think it's too terrible to play for the flush in most cases. I don't think that thin edge is worth breaking a pair of J's... I don't know, though.

If it was a pair of 55-, then I'd say the FD is worth more than a baby pair.

I'm not sure how to think of splitting 6's up, though. Royalties in the top start w/ a pair of 6's, so I'd be tempted to place the pair up top. However, this is a dangerous strategy that only gets more dangerous the bigger the pair is. It seems pretty suicidal to drop 88 - JJ up top on the first set. QQ is a different story, due to Fantasy Land. Where with KK,AA, I can't really split them, at least not for a 3-flush.


Separately... and speculatively:
I think it's not too terrible to lay the JJ in the middle and put A24 in the back. You're only a slight underdog to make 2 pair in the back, but any A is good enough to avoid foul, and there's a thin draw to a wheel, or running KK,QQ.

Originally Posted by MadMojoMonkey

Separately... and speculatively:
I think it's not too terrible to lay the JJ in the middle and put A24 in the back. You're only a slight underdog to make 2 pair in the back, but any A is good enough to avoid foul, and there's a thin draw to a wheel, or running KK,QQ.

Yeah, the Ace might make this ok. Still, it seems like hands with small straight draws (like wheels) in the back often end badly.

Asuming JJ mid ; A24 bot

Originally Posted by Eric

Yeah, the Ace might make this ok. Still, it seems like hands with small straight draws (like wheels) in the back often end badly.

Yeah, now that you mention it, I think if the next card was a 3 or 5, then playing it in the bottom would be a mistake. I was only adding a margin of 1 - 2% equity in my mental calculation for the runner-runner hands, which idk how good/bad that estimate is.

I think I remember doing the calc for making 2 pr with any 3 (no pair) on the bottom and it came to ~44%. So that was my base line for the guess about the A making it more than the 55% (of the flush draw). Since the pairing of the Ace means I don't have to make 2-pair, it's likely that adds a lot of equity. Then, I figured the runner-runner outs, PLUS the fact that my middle hand has solid equity (since I didn't split the JJ).