Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla
When you said 22 is great for a board like AT2 rainbow but not AA2, what did you mean?

Playing the player: obseve the player and their tendancies. Find out when they bet, when they don't and what every action means. Also how the react to bets.

-'rilla
Well what I think he means is that most tight players usually play hands like AK and AQs and many looser players even like to play any ace. So when the board comes AT2 he is very sure that unless he's facing pocket aces he has the best hand, AND he is likely to get paid off by a pair of aces. That means that's he's beat a small percentage of time, and a big winner a bigger percentage of time. Of course, when no one has anything he picks up the pot right there.

When you see AA2 and you're holding the ducks, if your opponent played a marginal hand like A4, you'd still be in a world of hurt. You have one out to beat him with quads, and that is one out, with two cards to go: about 2% chance to win
Also, it scares people away. Not only no one can make a straight draw expect for people playing 3-4 or 3-5 (automatic folding hands) so you won't get paid off for straights or flushes unless A and 2 are the same suit.

So you expect to win just as many small pots with that hand, lose a big ones MORE often and never actually win a medium pot unless someone just happens to have a 2 in their hand.

So while AA2 with a pair of twos is probably still profitable over the long run, AT2 is much more so.