Beginners: Re-align your thought processes.

[snoogins47]

I was playing some friendly, .25/.50 NL tonight, just for about an hour, max buy was $10, made 2 bucks, but anyway...

I raise preflop, $2 with QQ (which btw, people give me crazy looks for. 4x the big blind is some insanely ridiculous bet in these games) BTW, this is a shorthanded game, 5 players.

I get one caller. Board comes 2 2 A. I bet four dollars, knowing that this player might fold AJ, AQ, A10, and any hand without an Ace, including KK, in this situation. He's notoriously tight, and tends to overvalue pocket pairs, so I wanted to see where I was. He re-raises all-in, for about 4 more bucks. I of course lay it down, but face up, just so everybody knows. The re-raiser shows pocket Aces.

They play out the rest of the board. The turn comes another 2. My one friend says "holy shit, he would've made the boat, you could've taken him for his whole stack."

I was confused, and said "wha?" He said "Another two came on the turn, you would've had a full house."

To him, that third two makes a full house, making my hand much stronger. To me, had I gotten called and the 2 came on the turn, I would've check-folded. It didn't help me at all. I still didn't beat any of the hands that I was afraid of.

This is the same guy who has so many stories of "Man, I got beat, a full house to a bigger full house" or "the card that made me trips made him his boat" and so forth.

Ladies, gents, everybody that reads this.

Hand rankings, in Hold'em, must be considered RELATIVE TO THE BOARD!

If you hold JJ, and the board is 4 5 J rainbow.... you have three of a kind, but NOBODY CAN HAVE YOU BEAT.

If the board is 2 J J J A, and you have a two.... yes you have a full house... but anybody with a J, or an Ace, or any non-2 pocket pair, has you beat.

If you have A 10 of hearts, and the board is A K J 10 of spades... sure you have two pair, but is that a strong situation? Hell no.

There are times when I'd hold three of a kind and want to bet my stack, my car, and my girlfriend. There are other times when I wouldn't even bet my girlfriend's car.

It's all relative to the board. And when you learn that, you've taken yet another step in getting rid of those fins and gills and becoming a poker player.

[jwrussell]

Great info there Snoogins, but this had me rolling man!

It's all relative to the board. And when you learn that, you've taken yet another step in getting rid of those fins and gills and becoming a poker player.

[Nut Flush]

I'm confused. You had QQ and the winner had AA. The board was 22A(flop) and another 2 on the turn. And your friend thought you would have won with a boat? Did he not see the three Aces or am I just reading it wrong?

[snoogins47]

No no, he knew I'd lose, (I was confused at first too)

He cleared it up. He thought that if the AA boy would've just called me, and my QQ improved to 2s full of queens, I would've lost my money for sure, being more tied down to a 'better' hand than I had previously.

Obviously this wasn't the case. It's a bit of an extreme example, but that's the amazing thing: it's not hypothetical, this exact scenario played out.

[Nut Flush]

Oh I see, he meant the other guy could have taken your whole stack if he had slow played it.