A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W
Dominated (Poker)
Being dominated in poker can very often be a losing proposition and refers to two poker hands one of which is stronger than the other and with the strong hand said to dominate the weaker hand.
For instance, A-K against A-Q would be said to have the AQ dominated as even if an ace hit the board, both players would have a paid of aces, but the A-K would have a king kicker as opposed to the queen (which is lower). In this instance the A-K would win by virtue of the bigger kicker. In essence, when one players hand has another player dominated, the player who is dominated is not the favorite to win.
The term is also used with regards to pocket pairs, for example, a pair of 8's has a pair of 7's dominated as the 7's would need to improve to win the hand. Not only that the pair of 8's would win 80% of the time which emphasizes the dominance over a pair of 7's which would win 18.70% of the time (split 0.86%).
To give you some common examples of hands that come up against each other where one dominates the other, please refer to the following table. Note that this is based on hole cards not being suited.
Player 1 Hand |
Player 2 Hand |
% Player 1 Win
|
% Player 2 Win
|
A-K |
A-Q |
71.72% |
23.69% |
A-K |
A-J |
71.41% |
24.02% |
A-K |
A-10 |
71.09% |
24.34% |
A-Q |
A-J |
70.69% |
23.62% |
A-Q |
A-10 |
70.37% |
23.95% |
K-Q |
K-J |
70.83% |
23.66% |
A-A |
K-K |
81.06% |
18.55% |
K-K |
Q-Q |
81.06% |
18.56% |
Q-Q |
J-J |
82.40% |
17.08% |
J-J |
10-10 |
82.42% |
17.07% |
10-10 |
9-9 |
81.10% |
18.48% |
9-9 |
8-8 |
80.95% |
18.46% |
8-8 |
7-7 |
80.70% |
18.44% |
7-7 |
6-6 |
80.32% |
18.42% |
6-6 |
5-5 |
79.73% |
18.39% |
5-5 |
4-4 |
79.44% |
17.88% |
4-4 |
3-3 |
78.48% |
17.83% |
3-3 |
2-2 |
78.60% |
16.39% |
Check out our Poker Odds Calculator to see how all hands fair against each other
It is difficult to avoid being dominated at times as this is poker and if you simply waited for the best hands all the time, you wouldn't make money. One way you can minimize the likelihood of being dominated is by not playing trash hands (big cards with weak kickers). For instance a player might enter a four way pot with A-2. Is this a good move? Probably not as anyone with A-3 up has this hand dominated. Secondly, when an ace hits, you still wouldn't know where you were in the hand and would run the risk of committing more chips to the pot than you should, in an attempt to find out.
On the flip side, going in with A-Q and the board reads A-4-8, your pair looks good and will be unlucky to run up against A-K or better. Judgment here will keep you out of trouble. If you are up against a very aggressive raise and you think you might be behind, fold. Never get married to your hand and bet only enough to see where you are in a pot, particularly when you only have a pair. If you are making the call, you might look to call the first bet which will hopefully slow the aggressor down (if on a bluff). Don't commit your whole stack on a pair unless you have strong reason to believe that your opponent has less.
If this doesn't scare off the opponents, there is every chance that you might be up against a bigger hand. Given you only have a pair, there is every chance, proceed with caution.
Copyright © 2003 - Top15Poker.com - Top for Poker Terms and Guides.
