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Overcards
An overcard is a card games on the flop that is higher than the highest card in your hand. It represent the threat that it has paired one of your opponent’s hole cards.
If you have T♣ T ♥ then you definitely would not like a flop like K ♥ 8 ♦ 6♠ against six players. Any player betting in front of you is representing at least a pair of Kings. Whether or not he actually has a King is for you to figure out and it usually means you’ll have to fold your hand, even if you sometimes actually have the best hand at that point.
You have to have an Ace in the pocket to not have to worry about an overcard, and that’s going to happen only 14.9% of the time. The X in the following table represents any card lower than the one named.
Percent Chance That You Will Flop an overcard |
You Hold |
None |
One |
Two |
Three |
One or More |
An overcard and No Set if paired |
K♣K♦OR KX |
77.449 |
21.222 |
1.408 |
0.020 |
22.550 |
11.67 |
Q♦Q♥OR QX |
58.571 |
35.143 |
6.000 |
0.286 |
41.429 |
31.12 |
J♥ J♠ OR JX |
43.041 |
43.041 |
12.796 |
1.122 |
56.959 |
46.96 |
T♠T♣ OR TX |
30.531 |
45.796 |
20.816 |
2.875 |
69.487 |
59.57 |
9♣ 9♦ OR 9X |
20.714 |
44.388 |
29.082 |
5.816 |
79.286 |
69.30 |
8♦ 8♥ OR 8X |
13.265 |
39.796 |
36.612 |
10.327 |
86.735 |
76.54 |
7♥ 7♠ OR 7X |
7.857 |
33.000 |
42.429 |
16.714 |
92.143 |
81.65 |
6♠ 6♣ OR 6X |
4.163 |
24.980 |
36.612 |
25.306 |
95.837 |
85.01 |
5♣ 5♦ OR 5X |
1.857 |
16.714 |
45.551 |
36.429 |
98.143 |
86.97 |
4♦ 4♥ OR 4X |
0.612 |
9.184 |
39.796 |
50.408 |
99.3898 |
87.92 |
3♥ 3♠ OR 3X |
0.102 |
3.367 |
28.959 |
67.571 |
99.898 |
88.22 |
2♠ 2♣ |
impossible |
0.245 |
11.510 |
88.245 |
1000.00 |
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None, one, two and three means the chance of having exactly that many overcards come on the flop. For example, if you hold Q ♥ Q♣, there will be exactly two overcards (Aces or Kings) on the flop 6.0% of the time. The One or More column is simply the total of the one, two and three columns. Hold'em no limit .
Note that there is barely any difference between a pair of deuces and a pair of eights in the pocket when it comes to flopping an overcard. A Jack in the pocket is the median hand for flopping an overcard. A Jack in the pocket is the median hand for flopping an overcard. You’ll get one or more 57% of the time while you’ll flop an overcard to a Queen only 41% of the time. That is why in a multi-way pot I do not raising pre-flop with J ♥ J ♦ in the pocket. I know I’ll get an overcard over half the time so I see the flop as cheaply as possible.
The column on the far right gives the odds of getting at least one overcard and not flopping a set when you hold a pair in the pocket. In other words, it gives the odds that you won’t like the flop
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