Hi all

I'm new to Holdem, but quite intrigued. But my results were kinda flaky, so I stumbled upon this great site, which taught me a lot.

While I'm trying to digest this information - it's a lot to take in - I have something I am particularly confused about.

The thing I'm confused about are pocket pairs in relation to high-hitters like big slick.

AA and KK are obviously the best hands you can get, all-in material.. and I used to think of AK (preferably suited) the same way.

But if I pitch AK against the lower pocket pair (22).. the odds come up 50/50.. so it's a cointoss who will win this. Making the AK suited adds less than 2% to its winning odds. And it gets even worse if I pitch say AQ vs 55.. then the pocket pair wins 55-45.

And if I put AQ vs "anything" and 55 vs "anything", then we 64-36. Pitching 55 vs anything yields a win in 60.5% of the cases.

Ofcourse these are just statistics.. the way to interpret them in a real game is what counts. I also realize these statistics are when you play it down to the river.

Another added bonus to a pocket pair that I can see - and which adds more confusion about the real value of two heavy hitters - is that a pocket pair plays a lot easier. The set drops? (1/8 times) You can milk the other party dry. The set doesn't win? Big slick won't stand to gain much here.

But then, the lower pocket pairs don't even show in the group 0-6 listing I found on this site. But in practice, a mere 55 will beat out AKs.. a little more than a cointoss, but still. One is placed in group 1 (bet em high!) and the other is nowhere to be found.

Hence my confusion. The only reason I can think of to use big slick is because it beats "any hand" a bit more often.. so you have to scare away the pocket pairs preflop?

Anyway.. if someone could shed some light into this matter, it would be really appreciated since I feel kinda lost now.. tournament coming up in 3 hours and I'm not sure what to even do with two unpaired high cards anymore.

(similarly suited vs unsuited.. seems like it only adds 2% to win.. but ofcourse these are again just statistics)

/confused soul