How do you win with only a high card?

im only a beginner,not ashamed to say.i also love this forum!Im having serious problems in one area of poker.im always getting shoved out of pots that im actually winning!

im playing against 2 other players.countless times a low carded flop comes out and im holding 2 high cards,usually ace with king to jack.but once a bet is shot in im forced to fold because the flop doesn't fit my hand.only to see when the other two turn their cards over,neither of them has hit the flop and a high card wins the pot!

how can i defend against this?help!!

probably not much of a defense really, sometimes you just have to fold

If you have a tight image, people will often put you on overcards. When you have a tell that they attack you on low flops- be more inclined to induce bluffs and call them.

It is helpful to realize that you only hit a pair or better 67% of flops. That holds for villain as well. You can not give up all flops that miss you.

A quick tip:

Lots of showdowns- Need a lot of equity

Very few showdowns- Equity does not matter as much

If you win every time you have the best hand, you're calling too much.

Ideally, you'd like to call whenever you had the best hand and fold whenever you don't. Unfortunately in most cases you don't know for sure whether you have the best hand, the best you can do is estimate the chances and call when you're more likely to be ahead, and fold when you're less likely to.

On one extreme, if you call every time, you're never going to fold the best hand, but you're going to be paying off a better hand a lot. On the other end, if you fold every time, you're never paying someone off, but you're often folding the best hand.

The most profitable action is a compromise, where you'll call if you think you're X% likely to win (X determined by pot odds). This means you're sometimes paying off a better hand, and you're sometimes folding the best hand, neither are necessarily mistakes.

If getting bluffed was never correct, bluffing wouldn't ever be correct at high levels, but it is, and winning high-card hands are the most susceptible to it.