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small pocket pairs
Hi guys, can someone advise me on playing a pocket pair say 2's through to 8's. 9's and up im confident, but i panic with anything lower, and have often folded 22 or 55 to an unraised flop out of sheer panic.
Comments
Keep it simple. Cbet IP, C/F OOP, give up the turn if you miss.
Folding 22-66 is standard when its 10bb poker in EP. Shove it on the button, shove it SBvBB.
The first thing you need to do is to get into the pot cheaply, you can do this by either flat calling or putting in a small raise. When you go set-mining you are about 7.5/1 to hit on the flop. If you miss on the flop and 3 over cards appear you can easily fold to any bet. If you hit you can then start to build the pot up.
Pairs between 77 and JJ are the harder ones to play because you can miss the flop and still believe that your hand is good if there is say only 1 overcard
A preflop raise should limit your opponents and you can judge the sort of hands they would be playing. Then it is a question of looking at the texture of the flop to see if it falls in their range. The main skill with playing these pairs is the ability to lay them down if you encounter resistance. Remember that a pocket pair that does not turn into a set is just one pair.
This advice works in the early or middle stages of an MTT or STT. In the late stages they are shove or fold hands and should be played on the basis of stack size and reads on your opponents and of course position. In these situations it is perfectly fine to shove with 22 but all theses low pocket pairs make very bad calling hands.
I do feel silly for panicing with them and have a small blame to them and pocket queens for my recent down turn. however its all about how i play it, and i think listening to that advice has helped me alot.
In position
Out of position
Early/Middle/Late Position
Check/Fold
done!
And also people play bad in 3b pots so I try and get them in them as often as possible.
EP = early position
MP = middle position
LP = late position
IP = in position (last to act)
OOP = out of position (1st to act)
bb = big blinds
C/F = check, fold (check and fold if bet into)
Cbet = continuation bet (you've bet before the flop, now you're betting on the flop)
SBvBB = only small & big blind remain in (folded around)
10bb poker = stacks are around 10 big blinds - play is limited - shove/fold.
FOR ME THERE 4/5BB RAISE AND IF YOU HIT SHOVE ASAP. BECAUSE YOUR ONLY HOLDING A HAND THAT BEATS 2 PAIR ITS TYPICAL THAT IF YOU TRY AND BUILD THE POT YOUR HEADING FOR TROUBLE. EITHER ONE OF THE CARDS ON THE FLOP COMES IN AGAIN SO YOUR WORRING ABOUT A BETTER 3 OF A KIND OR SOMEKIND OF FLUSH OR STRAIGHT DRAW WILL MATERIALIZE.
IVE JUST BROKEN MY RULE IN THE 7 O CLOCK DEEPIE POCKET 3S FLOP K 10 3 TURN 5 BUILT A LOVELY POT UP NO SIGN OF DANGER THE RIVER IS 9. OPPONENT PUTS IN SMALL BET IM STRAIGHT OVER THE TOP CALLED OPPONENT SHOWS Q J IM OUT.
SO IM BACK TO MY HIT AND SHOVE RULE FOREVER LOL
The best advice anyone can give is that you can play small PPs in position and take pots down alot more when you are checked to on the flop with a continuation bet. If your out of position you will just be set mining alot of the time and just have to check/fold them.
In shorter stacked games, as I said, just shove preflop so that you cause your opponents to fold alot (this is known as fold equity, whereby u increase your chances of winning the hand by the amount of times your opponent folds)
Hope this helps a bit more if u didnt understand my first post. Cheers.
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