terminology - trips or sets?

I'm reading poker for dummies. They make the following statement and it's confused me a bit.



I'd learnt from the forum that trips were if you held only one of the three of a kind in your hole cards, and a set was when you held two in your hole cards (making it less likely that someone else has the same hand) - but the above seems to imply there's no difference.

Could someone clarify thanks

officially if you have a pair in your hand hit a 3rd on the board that is a set. if you have one card in your hand and hit 2 on the board that is trips. but no one really pays attention to it

Technically it's the same thing but many differentiate the two as a set or a pair to avoid confusion about the hand. Trips are typically easy to spot (paired board) but sets are much harder.

Your hand:

:As:

Board:




You got trips.

====================

Your hand:



Board:

:Kd:


You got a set.

I think there is another point of clarification...

Re-read your page...

If you HELD 888 you could call it trips or spades... sounds like 5-card draw, 7-card draw or another game. Not Texas Hold Em because you don't HOLD three or more cards.

i didn't know that.

i wonder if a set wins more hands than trips? my guessing is that with trips there is a possibility of a full house. (very wide generalization)

Originally Posted by Deanglow

officially if you have a pair in your hand hit a 3rd on the board that is a set. if you have one card in your hand and hit 2 on the board that is trips. but no one really pays attention to it

Just to add to this... the real diff is that trips are more vulnerable than a set and less disguised. They're vulnerable 'cause you've got a paired board giving you real exposure to a full house. It's usually been suggested to me that trips need to be played hard and fast -- not a good candidate for slowplaying. Other issue is that you might want to stay aware of your kicker... 93 on a 996KT board has exposure to not only KK and TT, but also villain holding 98 or A9. This isn't an issue with a set...

A set is more hidden and can even make sense to play against a strong flopped draw (i.e. 3 to a suit) because you have the outs to a full house. Still have to be careful about slow-playing them but you have the option depending on board texture.

Thanks for all the replies much appreciated. They actually refer to the set's as havin two hole cards paired and hitting a third on the board later in the book so I think that was just a bit of an editorial slip up - thanks for reassuring me that I had the right idea.