Overpairs & Overcards
When the board comes 9 7 3 and you have a couple of jacks in your hand, you have an overpair. Technically, you have an overpair to the board. If the board was 9 7 3 and you had J9 in your hand, you would have top pair but you would be worried that your opponent might have an overpair (AA, KK, QQ, JJ or 1010). You hate the overpair when they are “over” your pair, you loved them when they keep a player betting into you when you have a lower set (JJ vs. 333, for instance). The trouble with overpairs to the board is that you want to maximize your win by keeping the other players calling your bets but you also don’t want to give them free cards. A board of 9h 7s 3c is not threatening to your JJ but when the 8h hits the turn, you start to see visions of straights and flushes taking down your pair of Jacks.
The term “overcard” is similar to overpair. When the board hits 973, you might be ready to fire out a bet with your AQ, you have two big overcards but the AK sitting next to you is even in better shape. The overcard is often mention in a typically race situation: 55 versus AK, both the A and the K are overcards. But when you make your stand with A10s you only have one overcard and much less of a chance to win the race when you opponent shows JJ, QQ or KK because now your 10 is not an overcard and hitting a single 10 on the board does not win you the hand.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #44
