Even if you play all the way to a showdown in hold ’em, if you start with a pair of deuces, the odds against you catching at least one more deuce among the five board cards are 4.2 to 1. You’ll only succeed 19 percent of the time.
When you consider that you’re unlikely to win without seeing a third deuce, that you might lose — often at some expense — even when you do see one, and that it will probably cost you considerably more money to get to that last river card, you can understand why a pair of deuces is usually unprofitable to play in hold ’em. — MC
