You may as well fold because you will lose.
It has happened to me hundreds of times.
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Show some hand examples. How are you betting your 2-pair? How wet is the board? Specific examples.
the oldheads here will tell you 2pair on the flop, just hand the other guy the money lol
Have to say i had to face this a lot too, so i’m not the only one that noticed. Whatever the kind of hands and flops, it turned into such a classic i really felt uncomfortable with for a long time.
But i finally won a few one of them lately, maybe helped by leaving tourneys for ring games.
If the board is dry, 2-pair should be good. If the board is wet, look out.
You see, any 2 cards can flop 2-pair just as easily as another other 2 cards, but people tend to play connected and gapped cards more. Less people play Q4 than J9 for instance.
If we flop Q26 for 2-pair great! Let’s get paid.
But if we flop J97 for 2-pair, T8 just came in, and anyone on Tx or even 8x wants to stay in the hand, see? QT (and 86 for that matter) is even open-ended. It’s dangerous.
2-pair on a J93 flop is safer, but still be aware that QT, T8 and 86 are open-ended here, plus there are a number of guts.
Now this doesn’t mean that we should immediately jump ship. There are other factors of course. What was the pre-flop action for instance? If Villain is the PFR out-of-position he will have less T8 and probably no 86 in his range. If he called your opening from the BT he has a lot more QT, T8 maybe even 86 in range depending on how loose he is. If the pre was all limp, EVERYTHING is there! Look out!
But in any case, just be aware that your 2-pair might not be good here, or might get whooped on the turn or river, so the point is, don’t be surprised when you lose to a straight when you play 76 and flop 2-pair.
But what do we do when Villain is drawing? We make them pay for the draw of course. We just have to be careful reading the board because if he already has it we’re paying him. Is he looking for a gutter? Is he open-ended? Does he already have it? Take some extra time and look at that board and see just what draws are there. Then the turn. Does it add to the straight (say flop 872 turn T - yikes!!) or does it brick? Pay attention.
Also, what about Villain’s action? Does he call your large bet? Does he snap call your small bet? Does he take his time? Does he check back your slow play or does he bet? Is his action normal for him? Checking back or flat calling small is a strong sign of a draw.
How many players still in the hand? Heads-up is safer. 4-way starts getting really dangerous that someone else has it or will complete on the later street.
And of course, our pot odds. We have 4 outs to a boat (cha-ching!), which is just as good as his gut, but only half of his open-ends.
And double of course, watch the suits for flushes but that is the same for any hand.
So many players flop 2-pair and think, “I’m good! Let’s get paid!” and stop watching the board and stop caring about Villain’s actions. Then get surprised by the straight and blame the deal. Don’t be surprised. This is totally normal. It’s very VERY common.
I will take flopping top 2 pair every hand.
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