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September 29, 2000
Taken from The Complete Book of Hold'em Poker by Gary Carson.
5.3.1.2 Second pair You will encounter a lot of flops of second or third pair. For example, holding Aª Tª with a flop of Kª T¨ 4© . Or holding T§ 9§ with a flop of Jª T¨ 5© . In these examples,if the pot is being contested by multiple players, you should probably fold if someone bets unless the pot is fairly large. It's likely you don't have the best hand and you're about a 9-to-1 underdog to improve. And, even if you do improve, it may make someone else a better hand. For example, in the Aª Tª example above, an ace on the turn could make someone a straight. In the T§ 9§ example, a 9 on the turn could make someone a straight. It's important in Hold 'Em to not just have the best hand, but to be fairly confident that your hand is best. If you're not certain enough about your hand to bet or raise with it, then you aren't likely to be able to earn any extra bets those times you're best but you'll be losing extra bets those times that you're not best. This idea of avoiding situations where you won't win much if you win but might lose a lot when you lose is a fairly common principle in Hold 'Em. Keep it in mind.
The situation changes dramatically if the pot is only being contested by one or two opponents. In that case your second pair has a pretty good chance of being best, particularly if it's been checked to you on the flop. Against two opponents it's probably about even money that you have the best hand, and against a single opponent it's more like 2 to 1 that you have the best hand. Bet the hand in that kind of situation unless you have some specific reason to think the flop may have hit one of the opponents fairly hard.
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