Facing a big pocket pair

What is the best thing to do in this situation. Say you act first, call the big blind and there is a raise 4 Xs the bb. Your hand is strong enough to see a flop and you make top pair.

Should you bet or check to the raiser? Are there any obvious moves a big pair will make against an underpair?

I got nailed with a pair of jacks and lost to a pocket pair of queens tonight. I checked to the raiser and called down to the river. I probably should have raised to test how strong the hand was but any other suggestions?

First of all if you are first to bring it in you have to raise not limp in..You have to define your hand to the other plays especially from early position.. You limped in and then called a 4XB raise..Now i'm not knocking you at all, don't take it that way but I heard something that made alot of sense to me once when I first started playing poker.. That is "if it's good enough to call then it's good enough to raise".. In this situation say I did limp in though then called the raise..I didn't hit my set so i'll check to the raiser, let him bet, then raise him.. If he plays back at me then I seriously need to think about letting my hand go.. Just my opinion..

either check-raise or bet re-raise and that should let you know where you stand. you usually need a better chunk of the flop with a hand like J10s than just top pair. 2p, open ended straightdraw and/or flush draw.

The more peolpe tha stay in someones likely to catch a better hand, because with pocket pairs you limit your hand sometimes. But heads up your odds are good.

If you flop top pair against a preflop better like this I would throw some kind of a bet out there just to test him out. Make a decent size bet that way you will get an idea of what he has. Since he made such a big preflop bet you have to think he has a pair or should like AK. So if you flop top pair make a decent bet and see what he does if he calls you probably have to think he has a over pair in the hole.

With pocket pairs of face cards of higher, you need to be somewhat aggressive with it and establish yourself. However, it's not something to depend heavily on and go all-in, as you could easily lose to the dumbass who goes all in on 26 and nets a straight.

Even though you lost to pocket Q's, if that was all he had, he may have folded it on the Turn or River if you keep your bets strong and consistent. If he stayed, you'd have lost more, but hey, it's poker:

"You can make all of the right moves and still lose."

~HotShotX

I read somewhere that at a ten person table, if you were delt a pocket pair, odds are atleast two other players were also delt pocket pairs. Pocket jacks are good but odds are someone was delt higher, or hit a mid level tripps on the flop. I like pocket JJ but end up on the end of those hooks more often than not. Later...

You called his pre flop raise and hit top pair on the flop, assumimg you have a decent kicker, you have only two choices. Bet or fold to his bet after you checked.

Calling any bet after that was the worst thing to do.

What is going on ?? IS he a wild player or a solid player ? I would have folded a top pair of Jacks to a bet, raise. You could not have re-raised preflop with your hand. You did hit top pair but what is that?? Not much really it's a Pair of Jacks To many hands can beat that on the turn and the river.


Me ?? I would have called the pre-flop bet, hit my top pair bet into the preflop bettor, been re-raised and folded. Only losing chips on the pre-flop and the flop. Intead you lost chips on the pre-flop,flop,turn and the river

You have a 1 in 17 chance of getting a pair. Without any further information, if there are 9 others at the table, the chances at least 1 has a pair are 1-(16/17)^9 = 42%.

However given that there are big raises or re-raises, there is more likely to be a high pair out there.

Regarding what toadley said, there's definitely a lot of observation involved in determining whether to play or not. Noting the odds is all good and well, but noting whether he's a wild player/big bluffer or not is integral in determining whether to play a hand like that or not.