The set is the classic hand for doubling up in No-Limit Holdem, mainly because of its deceptive nature. It can be hard for the other players to put you on a set, and you may get a lot of action from much weaker hands like two pair, an overpair, or even top pair with a strong kicker. Three of a kind is often enough to win the pot in Holdem, and the hands you can improve to (a full house and quads) are monsters.
Let's look at a hand I played recently and discuss some of the issues involved with pocket pairs improving to sets. First, a summary of the hand.
It's a NLHE cash game with blinds of $0.25/$0.50 and a $50 max buy-in. The game has been pretty loose and not incredibly aggressive preflop. I pick up 44 UTG and I limp. The player immediately to my left limps, and it's folded to the big blind who raises to $3. I call, the player to my left calls. We all are pretty deep - the big blind and I have a little less than the max buy-in, and the player to my left has us both covered.
The flop comes 4h Ac Kh. The big blind checks. I bet $5 into a pot of about $9, the player behind me calls, and the big blind calls.
The turn is 3d. The big blind bets $6 into a pot of about $24, I call, and the player behind me moves in. The big blind folds and I call. The player behind me shows Kc 3c for two pair. He has two outs, the two remaining kings (if a 3 hits he makes threes full and I make fours full).
River is Jd, my set holds up and I win a $100 pot.
Now, let's look more at the decisions I faced and why I played it as I did. Let's start with preflop. I'm sure there are people who would argue against the way I played the hand on the first round. Limping from UTG with a small pair is not a move that everyone would make. I do sometimes limp with small and medium pairs from early position if the game is not particularly aggressive.
The hope of course it to get in cheap, as it's about 8.5:1 against flopping a set. With hands that depend a lot on implied odds you want to get in for as little as possible, and have the real money go in once you've hit your hand. You're not looking to call a big raise and play the hand heads-up. So why did I call a raise to 6x the big blind?
First, it felt like a steal raise. A lot of players would take a shot at the pot there, when they were last to act and there were only limpers in front of them. Also, the raise was pretty big, it didn't look like someone who really wanted action. You don't see as many preflop steals in cash games as you do in tournaments, but I had seen this player make a few over-aggressive plays before this hand.
Another possibility with a raise of that size is that he had a big hand, a big pair or AK. Those are the kinds of hands you can bust someone with when you flop a set. You won't get action unless the other player makes a hand that they like, and some players will get all of their chips in with a hand like an overpair or top pair. If they flop top two you have a very good shot at doubling up.
The second big factor in choosing to call the raise is that the raiser and I were both pretty deep. I was calling another $2.50 to potentially win over $40 more. And the player behind me was even deeper, he had me covered. If he came in the implied odds situation would be even better.
So, I called. I wouldn't call a raise that big every time I had 44 UTG, it's not my usual play. But we have to evaluate each situation on its own, and in this case I thought it was the right move.
The flop came and I hit my set. I was really happy to see the AK on board as well, since I thought it was quite possible one of the other players had flopped two pair. The big blind, who raised preflop, checked. I was tempted to check as well, but there are a few reasons I didn't.
First, many players expect someone who flops a big hand like a set to check. By betting you might convince them that you have a weaker made hand that they can beat, or just a draw. I made a bet of a little over half the pot size, and it's not uncommon to see that type of bet from someone who is semibluffing.
Second, betting builds the pot and encourages action. This isn't as critical as with Pot-Limit or Limit, since the chips can all still go in on the river. But you are more likely to be called on those last couple of bets if the pot is big.
Third, there were possible flush and straight draws, and I didn't want to give a player with either one a free card. If they were going to draw out on me, I wanted to make them pay something for it.
I was happy when both players came along with me on the flop, and even happier when the big blind led out o