Big pairs discussion

There have been a few HA threads relating to big pairs and a member (who's name I won't disclose since he sent me a PM about this, and I can only assume that he wants a PM to stay private) PM'ed me about it:

and I responded:

Anybody got any comments/thoughts on the subject? I know it's a big toughy for a lot of players who mention that they 'dread' seeing AA or KK or whatever.

I agree with all of that.

Sticking with AA, you know you have the best hand prelop (and you should assume the same with KK as well unless you want to drive yourself nuts).

When you have the best hand you should be looking to get the maximum amount in the pot. You also need to make sure that your opponent is put in a position where it is a mistake for them to call.

This means that in an unraised pot a 3xbb raise is fine as you want a call and the opportunity to play some post-flop poker as appropriate, you also want to encourage the reraise.

However if someone has already raised then you are left with a decision to make, you can call and look to play post-flop poker (and there IS a time for this in tournies) but much more commonly you want to reraise to once again give them the chance to put their chips in behind build the pot while you are ahead and give them a chance to make a mistake.

It's very context specific but generally you should consider that the pot is already a decent size (usually 4.5BB or more) and you are ok with winning it there. More importantly you are delighted to get a call and your long-term EV in this position is huuuuuuuuugely in your favour.

And just to add a wrinkle to this, against multiple opponents in MTTs where one has raised 3xbb ish and one or more has called, you can't go far wrong pushing AA and KK in tournies (assuming an average stack).

And just to confuse things more, I probably don't get all my money in early in a MTT unless there is, as Irexes says, money waiting on the table. Cash games, where survival is not a factor, is a different matter. In cash always try to get all your (and obviously, someone elses as well) money in preflop, while you're likely way ahead.


And the other thing I wanted to mention, is the difficulty getting off big pairs on the flop. Brunson says something about liking AK more than AA or KK just because it's much easier to fold if you missed the flop. But a flop like JT9, or JJ9 is not one I'd want to risk the rest of my money on.



But one isn't required to pay attention to me, as I'm not in the other two posters' class.

I agree with you NL, it is at times hard to get off big pairs after the flop, some players tend to lose alot of money on them.

On another thread today, bombjack made a great laydown with AA. Not everyone is able to do that.