TheGamester

Agree on limit and changing speeds but a set or trips is still a pretty good hand and will win a lot of large pots in limit. It's much easier to see what people are drawing to in limit so you have an option to fold or make a single bet to call if you think someone has hit their straight or flush. Remember, too, that once you have hit a set in limit, your odds of making a house with two cards to come are not bad because you just have to pair the board. That gives you two possible cards to pair on the turn and 3 cards to pair on the river, or 6 and 9 outs respectively, plus your 1 out to hit you

"No set, no bet" is a good rule of thumb but perhaps a little more color. First, I do distinguish 77 to 99 as mid-pairs (TT is a tweener). The mid pairs can still be good with a rag flop and no paint on the board, and I will continue to value bet them if I think they are good. The small pairs (66-22) are more problematical. If you are playing below $2-$4 limit holdem, you can call with them from early position and hope to hit your set. I usually play 2-4 and 3-6 and will fold small pairs from early position, sometimes call from mid-position, and almost always call from late position. If I have

In Daniel Negreanu's recent article, "2004 Borgata Poker Open -- Part II," in Card Player magazine, Daniel highlights a hand that he played from early position, 7s 4s, in which he initiated a raise. Daniel drew a huge flop against the chip leader which came Qs 6s 5c. With open straight, flush draw, Daniel went on to hit the flush and take a significant amount of chips from the chip leader. Why do I bring this hand up? Simply put, this is a trash hand and any poker book would tell you to fold this hand from early position, let alone raise with it. But Daniel being the player he is, played this