Letter to myself

We interrupt this poker blog for the following letter to myself. I am making myself read this every day until it is permanently in my brain.

Dear Pokerfool,

Sets (getting three of a kind on the flop with your pocket pair) are nice. We all love sets. Sets are one of the best ways to make money playing NL ring games. We especially love calling pre-flop raises with a pocket pair in hopes of hitting a set and trapping the raiser. It is usually correct to call a pre-flop raise with a pocket pair if that raise is not more than 10% of your stack or villain's stack (which ever is less).

But Pokerfool, you have to learn to let go of your sets on a scary board. If the board comes with 2 of a suit, and especially if there are three or more people to the flop, slow down if someone calls your flop bet and the third of that suit comes. If you get raised on the turn, it is definitely possible that someone has a flush. It's possible you are now drawing to 10 outs to a full house or quads.

So remember, sets can still be beat. Bet the flop hard on a draw heavy board, and let them make the mistake of calling you down, hoping to hit.

Thanks