Small and medium Pocket Pairs

[David_Capon]

Just wondering how do people play small pocket pairs, say up to 88 in EP and EMP?

At the start i advocate limping and seeing the flop cheaply in hope of hitting a set, but what when blind are a bit higher, say when you have 10BB in a tournament what do you do?

Hoping to open this to the floor.

David

[Colchester Kev]

good question, my particular nemesis seems to be Jacks, i never know how to play them, and however i do play them i invariably get beaten, so i await any answers to this question with interest.

[tikay]

How do I play small pairs in EP or EMP? Badly, in a word.......

I aint in a position to give poker advice, but I believe Dave Colclough's method would be to limp & hope to catch a set or a raggy flop - even with 10BB's left. He is a firm believer that players press the panic button too soon.

[David_Capon]

Well JJ is easy. Raise with them. If re raised generally chuck them. If called and there is an overcard on the flop make a continuation bet and be prepared to fold to a re raise or check and fold the turn.

As for when you are small stacked ie. less than10BB in early position why would you limp with small pocket pairs? If the pot is raised you have to chuck them, and on the flop there is generally an overcard so you will hardly never know where you are. This could be expensive. I don't think that you will be able to hit your set and extract their chips often enough for limping to be successful.

As for players pressing the panic button, why not fold and wait for a better position to double up?

But how about if u show strength and pretend to have a stronger hand than you actually have by raising? Comments?

Ty,

David

[snoopy1239]

The structure to many local casino comps means that calling preflop pot raises when the blinds are high is infrequent. Therefore, if I am going to fold jacks to a reraise, then I don't see much difference between them and raising with 2-7 off.

[tikay]

David - I intended to make it clear, that, as per your penultimate paragraph, passing a medium pair with 10BB's left WOULD be part of DC's strategy in certain circumstances. It depends on so many things though - position being uppermost.

[David_Capon]

David - I intended to make it clear, that, as per your penultimate paragraph, passing a medium pair with 10BB's left WOULD be part of DC's strategy in certain circumstances. It depends on so many things though - position being uppermost.

I concur

[Colchester Kev]

The problem i have with jacks is .... how much do i raise pre flop, you see whats happening is the only hands that call me are AK AQ AJ any 2 pictures or over pairs,and they always seem to hit. I really hate jacks, as i say they are proving to be my nightmare hand...now pocket 9's...never lost with them ...YET

[David_Capon]

JJ, depends if on how deep stack sizes are in comparission to the BBs.  For example late in the game a 3 BB raise would be fine as it is a fair proportion of your and their stacks.  However closer to the start of the game, 3bb can be nothing in comparisson to stack size, so you are giving people great implied odds to draw out on you and hit their set.  Thats why early on in tournies i tend to slow play, and can easily chuck them.  If u raise, i think u need to make it a biggish one, especially if there are already limpers as you need to thin down the field.

David

[David_Capon]

I aint in a position to give poker advice, but I believe Dave Colclough's method would be to limp & hope to catch a set or a raggy flop - even with 10BB's left. He is a firm believer that players press the panic button too soon.

does DC post at all?  It would be good to hear what he says, as from what i have heard he is a bit of a legend?

David

[tikay]

Now & then, when he has the time. Actually, I thought you & he shared a table on Sunday in Southmpton.

[David_Capon]

we did? you sure?  thought he was always on the other side of the room and got knocked out??

David

[TightEnd]

I know the standard strategy early on is to limp with small pairs in EP attempting to hit a flop cheaply, and folding to raises pre-flop but in sensible freeze tournaments recently I decided on something different, in part because the last time I tripped up on a flop Reagan was president and I thought I was getting a table image of being weak passive by limping and then folding to any bet on a flop I'd missed, my play until recently not being at the level of calling bets to take the pot away later with nothing

I raised 3x BB with any pair between 55 and 99 in EP, representing far stronger than I was. Occasionally of course I was folding to a re-raiser but when I get to see a flop usually acting first I would bet out on any raisers flop and try to see free cards on any rag flop.

Results were generally positive, particularly by betting out representing A or K etc

Later on wth <10xbb and you pick up any pair between 22 and 99 I find it very difficult not just to take my shot on what I hope will be a coin flip

[tikay]

Well no, not sure. But he exited 13th, one spot behind me, so I am surprised if you never shared a table.

Talking of Dave, he has sent me an article today (It will be on the Front Page tonight I hope) on his World Heads Up Tourney - it's great stuff, including his thinking on how to play H-U against different types of opponents. And he will be posting a Vegas Diary, starting in a day or two - he flew out there today. So watch out for that.

And I discussed with him your "small & medium pcket pairs" scenario this morning, & he added another tactic - the possiibility of limping with a view to Re-Raising......

Mind you, his Vegas trip got off to a bad start. I took him to the airport this morning, he said his flight was 1.30pm, so we arrived at about 11am. Shame he misread his ticket - his flight was 11am, due to ARRIVE 1.30pm Vegas (US time)...........So he missed it, doh!

[David_Capon]

Well no, not sure. But he exited 13th, one spot behind me, so I am surprised if you never shared a table.

Talking of Dave, he has sent me an article today (It will be on the Front Page tonight I hope) on his World Heads Up Tourney - it's great stuff, including his thinking on how to play H-U against different types of opponents. And he will be posting a Vegas Diary, starting in a day or two - he flew out there today. So watch out for that.

And I discussed with him your "small & medium pcket pairs" scenario this morning, & he added another tactic - the possiibility of limping with a view to Re-Raising......

Mind you, his Vegas trip got off to a bad start. I took him to the airport this morning, he said his flight was 1.30pm, so we arrived at about 11am. Shame he misread his ticket - his flight was 11am, due to ARRIVE 1.30pm Vegas (US time)...........So he missed it, doh!

The thing is i stayed on table one all the way through.  I just love sticking on the same table as one can build a table image and stick with it

Is that on this website that his heads up tips will be posted?  I look forward to reading it as i need a lot of help.

Hmm, that is bordering insanity and genius .  If someone did that to me i would think AA or KK straight away, run away!!  I like that move, but i guess oyu have to have enough chips to pull it off :~)  Thanks for posting that

lol!! oh dear, missing his flight!! was he able to get on another?  And does Vegas mean that quite a lot of good players won't be playing the comps in the next couple of weeks?