If you like your poker games fast paced, you might like to add a little strategy called set mining to your online poker repertoire. This online poker mining technique requires quick thinking and guts as you try and draw the game to a quick conclusion in your favour. Blink and you’ll miss it.
What is the set-mining poker strategy all about?
Set-mining poker strategies are simple to explain. Let’s outline the perfect set mining gameplan:
- In the pre-flop stage, you notice that you have a promising pocket pair that you could turn into a set (translation: before the community cards are dealt out, you already have two great cards that you can turn into a winning three card hand)
- You aggressively raise the stakes, encouraging all the other players to place large bets too, creating a huge pot of money for the winner.
- In the flop stage, you use the community cards to complete your winning hand. Then, you ask other players to reveal their cards. As they haven’t had time to build their perfect hands yet, your hand is the best one. You scoop up that giant pot of cash that was created just moments before.
As is evident from the above, set mining relies on the fact that you are working quickly towards a conclusion to the game within just one or two rounds, whilst other players are taking a more leisurely attitude and hoping to build their hands more slowly over a few rounds.
What are the odds to hit set poker hands?
One of the keys to success when you are set mining is knowing which hands to bank on. All poker players dream of getting a royal flush as it is pretty much a sure fire winning hand, but this is also one of the most unlikely hands to get. If the shoe (the stack of cards in the dealer’s hands) is made up of two decks of cards, as it often is, that is 104 cards in total. There are four ways of making a royal flush with a single deck of cards, and eight ways of making it with two decks of cards. Nevertheless, the odds of this enticing hand are a super slender 0.000154%. On the other hand, the odds of getting three of a kind are a much more promising 4.83%. Add to this the fact that the probability that you will be dealt out two of a kind is is a whopping 23.8% and you can already see the beginnings of a winning strategy for set mining. That strategy is:
Turning a pair of cards into a three of a kind hand
Let’s lay this strategy out neatly.
The small pair strategy in poker with the highest chance of success
The first thing to do is to select a pair of cards to make a ‘two pair‘. That could be a pair of aces, a pair of diamonds, or a couple of kings. Then, in the flop round, try and turn that pair into a three or four of a kind hand. The great thing is that you can be flexible here. If your initial hand contains the four of clubs, the four of diamonds and the ten of diamonds, there are two ways that you can make a three of a kind hand, for example. If another diamond is dealt out in the flop, you will have three diamonds. If another four is dealt out, you can create three fours. With a little luck, you may even get four of a kind.. Now it’s time to take a deep breath, hope that the other players haven’t been as quick off the mark as you, and call it!
Give this online poker strategy a whirl
No poker strategy is totally foolproof: the inherent element of chance is what helps to keep this game exciting. Nevertheless, set mining can be a very fun strategy to try out. Give it a whirl at an online casino near you!