What hand "catches you" the most by surprise?

For me, by far, it is the 3-of-a-kind. The straight can also be sneaky. Example:

My hand: AK
Opponent: 55

Flop: K75

It is the death of me... how about you? Any advice on how to avoid these sneaky hands?

PointedTip said:

For me, by far, it is the 3-of-a-kind. The straight can also be sneaky. Example:

My hand: AK
Opponent: 55

Flop: K75

It is the death of me... how about you? Any advice on how to avoid these sneaky hands?

Click to expand...

Yes sets crush the most. Advice well dont commit too much with just one pair and leave your opponent some room to act. And then take it from there. If he continues for big bets then maybe its time to Phold your pair.
Just watch your table. Are there any donkeys, nits, or whatever. But as for me if someone is raising in such spot i probably more of a fold guy, i need extra reads on a guy to continue in such spot.
:willy:

The rags that hit boats by the river. Those are the most surprising by far. 37O AIPF for a 3AK73 board. It never ceases to surprise.

Hello friend, they catch me with 77, it was a lot of times, in different games such as cash as well as in tournaments, the truth is that it depends on how you play the hand, one thing is to go all in and another to play betting on each street, in the Which one can you tell what kind of hand the opponent has.

For me it's also the small pair that makes a set. When you see three straight cards like 6-7-8 on the board, it's not too hard to imagine someone holding 9-10. After all, it is not an unreasonable starting hand. You can make a bet to see if your opponent continues. But you can also proceed with caution, practice pot control and not get carried away. The same thing goes for seeing three suited cards on the board. You know that some players are fond of playing any two suited cards and can see the possibility of your opponent having a flush. Again, you can proceed with caution and not get carried away. But when you're holding top two pair on a disconnected board where you see draws and someone is betting in to you, all you think of is all the times that some fool fired his entire stack at you with top pair and a weak kicker or bluffed off all of their chips with nothing but air. Then they turn over that small pair and you see that they flopped a set.

When people used to remark on the fact that I was constantly making deep runs in tourneys, I attributed to the fact that it's hard to win big pots against me. Part of it is not getting carried away every time I think I'm ahead in a hand. The other part of it is being able to see certain hands coming, being to put someone on straight or flush draw, and to being able to get away from my hand when I see the card that completes that draw land. It's not that hard for me to lay down Q-Q when I see an Ace hit the board on the turn, knowing how many players out there will refuse to lay down any hand with an Ace in it. But it's hard to see a set coming, especially when you see so many maniacs constantly making ridiculous plays. I would say the only way to win a really big pot against me was to surprise me by turning over a hand that I just couldn't see coming. And if you play it right, it's hard to see a set coming.

Hi.
I think to avoid such situations you need to play aggressively preflop. Aggressive play is, in my opinion, the best option in such cases.
Good luck.

I don't think there is a hand that is sneaky... You need always not consider that the opponent might have a set to begin with flop.

I guess depends how the opponent played the hand and better pray to don't have like 2 pairs... Because that is how I lost my big pots.... :/
Always 2 pairs and the other players has the lucky set

Sets definitely hard to read

Set on the flop

Yeah, straights on the river just murder me.

AA held by a very loose player. You finally get a QQ or AK to fight back with and boom! out you go.

When I have a KK and the opponent follows my raises with AX low and an A comes on the board!

Straights catch me off guard.

For example

AK vs 54

flop 2 K 3
Turn J
River Ace

Player with straight went all in. I should have folded my 2 pair.

Mid pairs, after stupid calls

I think the set (not the trips) is one of the hardest to read hands in poker !!!

Sets are probably the toughest to read according to most people I think (I'd probably agree), but I don't know if any hand really "catches" me by surprise. I'm constantly assessing what hands could turn into the nuts based on the situation - granted, some hands are much more logical than others; but, if you "expect" everything, then you are never really surprised.

I'm just a bit more surprised that the unlikely hand happened to come up that time

Without getting philosophical about it - probably toughest to read/predict are sets or Full House hands from trash that you thought they would fold preflop.

3 of a kind are probably the sneakiest IMO as it is well concealed. The table does not reveal sets of pocket pairs. Straights are close second as they consist of cards of a wide spread and hide in rainbows. I've lost to straights and said to myself how did I lose only to check the hand and lo a straight. I hate when that happens

flush with one card on a river..on river in general, all miracles happen

hello

Those sets are always hard for me to read, I have to refine those threesome areas more

I am often caught on KK and QQ and I have to pay on all the streets

3 of a kind with low pocket pair catches me by surprise. Flush, or straight, on river isn't usually a surprise but still hurts.

If you play against a range you will factor the possible flop cards into the hand possibilities the Villain may have.
You have to play the range that the Villain thinks you hold, against the range you think the villain may have according to their pre-flop and post-flop actions.

must say a Set

Hello
For me, the opposite situation is often destructive, when I have 55, very often with my set I come across a senior set or such an alignment
6,6,2,7,7
I have 55
Villain A, Q
This is a game

For me, unreadable straights on small maps are dangerous, on which the player called in position and especially out of position. There are players who limp and call several raises 3bets and 4bets from early positions on conditional 86 off-hand positions, especially at the beginning of tournaments when the stakes are still small.