In no limit Texas hold'em, how should we approach paired flops?

Question

17% a flops are paired, meaning that two of the three cards share the same value. These flops can be very difficult to maneuver both for the preflop raiser and the preflop caller. Those wishing to master the game of no limit hold them should turn to me because I can provide expert guidance on the situation as well as a myriad of other poker situations for those looking to up their game.

Answer 1

This depends entirely on the specifics of the flop (what is the paired card, what is the third card, is there a flush draw, are the cards connected, etc.) and the ranges of the players that entered the pot. Some general heuristics we can use on paired boards as the preflop raiser is to bet frequently for a small size (33%).

For example, as the BTN vs the BB in a single raised pot on QQ2r, we can bet our entire range for 1/3 of the pot (https://imgur.com/a/OHvs418) and the BB is forced to overfold because they simply have so many hands that completely missed.

However, on 665 with a flush draw, the BTN has to proceed more cautiously. We are still using the small sizing because the BB has just as much 6x as us if not more. The difference is that we are checking about 40% of the time (https://imgur.com/a/8D3D8xd). Some good hands to check are hands that totally whiffed, like hands with two overcards, no straight draw, and no heart. To protect our checking range, we should also check hands like AA, KK, and QQ. We prefer to bet the lower overpairs like TT and JJ because they need more proection as they are more vulnerable to overcards coming on the turn.

Lastly, there are some spots to size up on these paired boards. Specifically, larger sizings are used as the 3bettor in spots where neither player is going to have trips very often. For example, as SB vs BTN in a 3bet pot, the OOP 3bettor should be using a half-pot size and never opts for the 33% sizing (https://imgur.com/a/ZNlve84). OOP never has trips and IP only has a few combos of hands containing a 3 (1 combo of quads, 2 combos of A3s). As a result, OOP has the nut advantage due to all of its overpairs that IP does not possess, and the larger size is used to leverage that advtantage. IP is forced to make some ace high calldowns on brick runouts that players are certainly not finding in practice, so taking large sizings and bluffing three streets in these spots will be highly profitable.

Answer 2

First, not all paired flops are created equally. For example, if you were the pre-flop raiser, you have both a range advantage and nut advantage on boards where the paired card is a Broadway card (A, K, Q, J, T). Thus, they should typically bet small and frequently on these boards because their opponents are unlikely to connect. Using a small bet size is wise on the off chance that your opponent has connected. Furthermore, it's very difficult for both players to connect with this flop so a small bet size ensures that your opponent may come along if they have any piece of the board thus allowing you to capitalize or maximize your value when you do connect

On the other hand, the free flop callar will have the nuts advantage when the board pairing card is a nine, eight, seven, six or five. In this case, the pre-fop raiser should be very careful about betting with impunity because a clever preflop caller should be check raising this bet at a fairly high percentage. All in all, how you proceed on these flops depends on the value of the board pairing card and of course your opponents' tendencies.