The Terms "Set" and "Trips" in Hold 'Em

When referring to a hand that contains three cards with matching ranks:

Is it only a "set" if two of the three matching cards are in the hole (i.e., a pocket pair was dealt to the player, and matched by a single card among the five on the board?)... and, without the pocket pair, a hand with three of a kind is referred to as "trips"?

Or,

The terms "set" and "trips" are interrchangeable, referring to any hand with three of a kind, regardless of how many are in the hole?

Is this a regional thing?

To me, a set must include a pocket pair, but I use "trips" interchangeable sometimes.

See other thread that deals with this subject. A "set" is three of a kind with a pocket pair--"trips", with the pair being on the board. They actually are two very different hands, in that a set is a well-concealed three of a kind, whereas "trips" is a fairly easy-to-read three of a kind.

I agree with mkl's post 100%.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Is this a regional thing?

It's not a "regional" thing, but an "educational" thing.

Many novice players, and even some novice writers and announcers, will use them interchagably, But they are different as others have already pointed out.

I believe that neither of the answers are correct. A set is as you define it, only when you hold a pocket pair and the board gives you the third matching card. But trips is any 3 of a kind and including a set, 2 on board or 3 on board.

Quote: Wizard

I agree with mkl's post 100%.

If you agree that trips is fairly easy to read, that may explain your poker success, or lack thereof.

Quote: dm

If you agree that trips is fairly easy to read, that may explain your poker success, or lack thereof.

???? If a player has three 8s after the flop, is that easier for his opponents to sniff out if the flop is 885, or if it's 85J?

When a pair is on the board, any player above beginner level will proceed cautiously. That's because anyone putting money in the pot has to be aware of the possibility of trips. Yes, obviously, someone could ALWAYS be bluffing--but that could be morphed into "always call", which I doubt is a dominant strategy :) I would estimate that a flopped set earns three times as much money as flopped trips.

A further consideration is that when I flop "trips", there's only one other card available to help my opponents, but when I flop a set, there are two other cards on the flop that my opponents might use to make a worse hand that will pay me off. One of the juiciest situations in NLHE is when the pot is raised preflop, and the board is something like 59A. A person who has just flopped a set will eviscerate the preflop raiser who has something like AK. But if the flop comes something like 55A, a person who has made three 5's ("trips") won't get nearly as much action, because there aren't that many ways that flop could have helped anyone; the preflop raiser who hit his Ace would have to be very suspicious of anyone who put in any significant action postflop.

deleted

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

A "set" is defined as three of something. Does not matter how it is arranged.

What is the source of your definition?

deleted