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Thinking About Position (Part 2)

So “pair poker” is pushing as many hands out of the pot and isolating one player who has a drawing hand. Hopefully they will not have 2 over cards to your pair and make it a 50/50 race.
JJ vs. AKos pre-flop is a 56.8% vs. 43.1% race. (2 over-cards)
99 vs. AKos preflop is a 54.8% vs. 45.1% race. (2 over-cards)
JJ vs. ATos preflop is a 71.2% vs. 28.7% race. (1 over-card)
99 vs. T8os preflop is a 70.2% vs. 28.7% race. (1 over-card)
I like this example from Roy Cooke regarding the wired pair of Jacks.
Jacks, no over cards flop: Wins 20.5% of the time; eight of the other hands win 9.9% of the time.
Jacks, one over card flops: Wins 14% of the time; each of the eight other hands wins 10.75 percent of the time.
Jacks, two over cards flop: Wins 9.6% of the time; each of the eight other hands wins 11.25 percent of the time.
Jacks, three over cards flops: Wins 12.9 percent of the time; each of the other hands wins nearly 11 percent of the time.

This is against 8 other players. If you are against 1 or even 2 players an over-card is not as troublesome. Your opponents could also have the same over-cards. Like AJ and AT. Both of these players have a decreased opportunity to beat your jacks. There are only 2 aces in the deck left, 1 Jack and 2 out of the 3 tens have to hit. It is also interesting that the value of the Jacks go up when 3 over-cards flop. You hold the key card if the 4th over-card to complete the straight comes on the turn or river. The chances that someone holds another Jack are greatly reduced and you would end up splitting the pot if someone did hold a Jack and the straight slid off the deck.

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