Gordon Pair Principle

So I'm finally back in town (I was in FL for a conference) and with Thanksgiving only a few days away, work is starting to slow down so I can post again. Anyways, while I was traveling, I was listening to some old poker podcasts. Usually I listen to Phil Gordon's podcast. He was interviewing Kelly Kim, one of the November Nine and they were talking about the likelihood of someone else having a higher pocket pair when the action has been folded around to you.

I looked up his article since I was curious and bascially the idea is that you multiply the number of people left to act by the number of higher ranking pocket pairs possible, then divide by 2. So for instance, you're in the cutoff with 8-8 and action gets folded to you. There are 3 people left to act (button, SB, BB) and there are 6 pocket pairs that are higher than your 8s (9-9, 10-10, J-J, Q-Q, K-K, A-A). So that means that the likelihood of the remaining players having a higher pocket pair is (3*6)/2 = 9%.

I had not heard of this method before but found it interesting. What are everyone else's thoughts?

Here's the link to Gordon's Article

I believe it, but don't let it distract you from the betting and tells, that will tell you a lot mre than the perctentages.

I'm not sure if I quite follow your comment there. I understand that betting behavior and tells are certainly important aspects to the game but I'm not sure how you're connecting the two ideas with respect to my original post. Can you clarify?

Sounds like good information. But watch out for pocket 8s. They have killed me.

awry13 wrote:Sounds like good information. But watch out for pocket 8s. They have killed me.

lol - I hear ya. My killer pocket pair (and by killer I mean killing me) tends to be J-J. Decent enough that it's hard to let go but difficult to play if any overcards are on the board. I personally tend to like 8-8 since I don't value them too much and try to flop a set with them more than anything else. But I guess if you use this Gordon principle, it can potentially provide you with some better ideas as to what your opponent(s) may have.