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In online poker, depending on the player, a high card can sometimes be kept along with any pair you are holding in Five Card Draw, thus giving you the chance to pick up a strong two pair. The downside of this is obvious, in that you take away a card which could make you trips. Take this example (7,7,Q,5,A), we can see that drawing three cards maximises the chances of making a set of Sevens, and we may still hit two pair also, but holding the Ace gives a chance of making an Aces up two pair.

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In the final stages of a tournament just this evening I had two instances where holding a King with my pair would have led to making a two pair Kings up, and that could have changed my tournament greatly, as I would have then won both hands.

I never used to hold onto high cards with my pairs, as a two pair might not be enough to win often anyway, but recently I have discovered it has an extra benefit. When your opponent sees you draw two instead of three, they are far less likely to try and raise you out after the draw due to their fear of being up against trips. Despite this added benefit, I like to have the best chance of making a set too and so generally I alternate my play depending on the individual circumstances. Most players will generally hold or not hold a high card in the same way each time, and so paying attention to the tendancies of individual players will let you know when you should fear your opponent holding a set most often.

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