help! question on odds pocket pairs...

[mike3076]

these questions will probably seem stupid after i recieve the correct answer to them.
i have read that the odds of getting dealt a pocket pair in hold em,are different for aces than for say,a pair of 9's.
shouldnt the odds on this be the same?
there are (4) aces in a deck,and (4)9,s in a deck,so why
would the odds be diffferent for them?
2) i ha ve heard the same for getting dealt AK vs getting dealt -lets say ,62...again there are 4 of each card in a deck so shouldnt the odds be the same?
last question.
i have heard aces will flop 41% of the time.
shouldnt this figure be the same as the possibility of any card flopping? i do not understand why an ace would be more likely to flop than say,- a six or a four etc.
can somebody with the correct answers to these three questions please help me understand? my mind would appreciate it!

[RiverTheNuts]

You are correct, I think what you are thinking about is if there is alot of action. Players tend to play high cards more than low, so if several players are in a pot, you would assume more face cards are out of the deck than low cards, thus aces would flop a little less than low cards. If you hold AK and 6 people enter the pot for a raise, your 6 presumed outs probably need to be discounted to at least 4, because AQ, KQ, AJ, another AK, or even KK are all hands that are more likely to be out than a suited connector since they called a raise.

[OrianasDaad]

1) Odds of getting any specific PP are the same. It is equally likely that you will get dealt 22 as it is you will get dealt AA.

2) Ditto. There are basically three statistical hand categories: suited hands (.3%), offsuit non-pair hands (.91%), and pocket pairs(.45%). Each of these types, over time, will occur with similar regularity. The percentages are the probability of each specific type of hand occurring. You'll get AKs about .3% of all your hands, and you'll get 72o about .91% of the time.

3) Ditto. The odds of any card flopping are esentially the same.

Naturally, there are some caveats. Every time you hold AA, you will only flop another Ace about 6% of the time, not the 44% you mentioned (I don't know if this 44% figure is correct.) If you hold AK, then you'll flop an ace or a king about 33% of the time (just a guess, I don't remember the figure exactly - although I should.) Probability changes with each peice of new information that you have.

Many sources of information only list the occurences that most players would care about. Frequency of getting AA, frequency of hitting an ace when you have one, frequency of an overcard (an ace) when you don't have one, frequency of getting dealt a specific type of hand (suited or unsuited AK). Just because a source doesn't list the frequency of the hands you routinely throw away doesn't mean that they are different.

You were misled if a source told you that the probability of getting AA is different than 99, as you indicated in your post.

[wdbaker]

My guess is that you were quoted the odds reflecting something other than what you were looking for, maybe the not how often dealt but how often dealt and won or some such combo

One Street at a Time
wdbaker Denver, Co