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Question 8: Did I get lucky, or did I play this hand correctly? This hand came up last night in my quarter-fifty-dollar game. The hand was Texas Hold'em and the dealer’s antes $2.00, with no blinds. With pocket Jacks in early position, I made it one buck to go. Seven callers and the flop comes Ace-Queen-8, all off-suit. I check and an extremely tight player to my left bets a buck, there are two callers. Then it was my turn. I call. The turn brings a 9 and I check again, and the same tight player bets and one call this time. When I had called after the flop, which I didn't like very much, I figured that there was 12.00 dollars in the pot, so I was getting 12-1 for my money on what I erroneously thought at the time was an 8-1 shot on hitting trips.

A: As you have already figured out, the 8-1 odds on hitting trips refers to flopping them, when you are seeing three cards simultaneously, and not to a one shot deal hitting them on the turn. Then, when the 9 hit, you had four more outs, if a 10 hit. So after the turn, you really did have an 8-1 shot at making the winning hand and you gladly called, as the pot was laying 15-1 by then. So you're saying that going to the river, you had an 8-1 shot to win because you figured that you would win if a 10 or a Jack hit (six outs), and you're probably right, those cards probably do win for you, but with A-Q-8-9 on the board, a Jack hitting gives a straight to anyone holding a 10, and a 10 hitting gives a bigger straight to anyone ridiculous enough to be playing K-J here. So the math isn't really clear. I know one thing, with your hand, I would be hoping to hit the 10 a LOT more than the Jack. The Jack could also lose if an opponent held AA or QQ, but the betting seems to make that unlikely. The poker forces were kind as a 10 fell on the river and I took down the pot (I bet out and got two callers). The extremely tight original bettor showed down two pair, Q's and 8's, which I had assumed all along. My question is this. You got lucky, because you needed runner-runner (two consecutive perfect cards) to win. Implied odds is indeed an important concept, but it tends to come into play more when you are holding a hand like 2-2 before the flop; against multiple opponents, your hand has almost no chance to win without improving, but if it DOES improve, you may win quite a bit. Against a lot of opponents, J-J is a really bad hand unless a Jack flops, or the flop comes something like 9-6-3, and it is even worse when the flop contains an Ace and a Queen, two cards that are very likely out there in someone's hand.