Playing low pocket pairs, early position, late in tournament

[PrayForSpades]

If I'm sitting with an average stack I will just do a standard raise of whatever I am doing at the time, usually 3x if someone 3bets me I will probably lay it down unless I have a read on that player then I will probably come over top.

 

[Jacki Burkhart]

What in lords name is going on here.

If the blinds are huge as was stated by the op you don't limp with any hand full stop. You raise them hoping to either take down the blinds/antes or if u get called see a favourable flop that you can push a caller out of. If you get re raised you make a decision based on what you have seen from that player and whether you need to take a risk and try to double through.

Finally someone that agrees with my accessment

these 2 guys quoted above are spot on!

A lot of horrible advice is being given in this thread, I am appalled how many players are advocating limping with small pocket pairs in early position....

can we get back to the facts of the original question:

LATE IN TOURNAMENT
HIGH BLINDS

nuff said...muck the small pocket pairs in early position.

I don't care if you have a big stack, that's how you bleed chips and end up with a medium stack. When deciding if it is profitable to set mine you go by the effective stack, which is the smaller of the 2 stacks.

In these high blind late stages of tournaments players are looking to take down the blinds any way they can. Picking on the limpers or re-stealing from players who open light is just a cherry on top that sweetens the incentive to make a move.

how are you going to feel about min raising with 44 UTG when I ship on you from the SB and my stack represents 75% of your stack?

if I've detected that you are raising light in early position with speculative hands (and let's be honest, small pocket pairs are speculative hands). Then I will happily re-steal from you all day long as long as I think I have fold equity.

when blinds are high you want to take down pots preflop.

 

[Bowman26]

If on the bubble with a chance to cash fold. If you have less than 10BB Push it all in as any debt much less raise is going to have you all in anyway. Larger stacks are likely to call to try and pick you off with overcards and you will show aggression to start with giving others pause to call you down.

10-20BB play it by ear according to how the table is playing. With a larger stack limp expecting to call a raise or raise yourself min raise and see where it goes.

Just don't over commit with chips unless you have so few you are going all in with the next hand you play regardless. And toss them when nothing hits unless you think you can steal it with another bet.

 

[kanselau]

these 2 guys quoted above are spot on!

A lot of horrible advice is being given in this thread, I am appalled how many players are advocating limping with small pocket pairs in early position....

can we get back to the facts of the original question:

LATE IN TOURNAMENT
HIGH BLINDS

nuff said...muck the small pocket pairs in early position.

I don't care if you have a big stack, that's how you bleed chips and end up with a medium stack. When deciding if it is profitable to set mine you go by the effective stack, which is the smaller of the 2 stacks.

In these high blind late stages of tournaments players are looking to take down the blinds any way they can. Picking on the limpers or re-stealing from players who open light is just a cherry on top that sweetens the incentive to make a move.

how are you going to feel about min raising with 44 UTG when I ship on you from the SB and my stack represents 75% of your stack?

if I've detected that you are raising light in early position with speculative hands (and let's be honest, small pocket pairs are speculative hands). Then I will happily re-steal from you all day long as long as I think I have fold equity.

when blinds are high you want to take down pots preflop.

well said

 

[IJustWantToTalk]

well said

+1 to that

Only way I'm limping in early position is if I know one of the players is going to take a stab at stealing the blinds and I can re-raise all in to get max value on my hand. But only if I have A10s+ QQ+ AQo AKo That would be a rare play for me to make... but never with mid to low pocket pair. nope.

 

[jgenest3798]

these 2 guys quoted above are spot on!

A lot of horrible advice is being given in this thread, I am appalled how many players are advocating limping with small pocket pairs in early position....


110% behind missjacki here!!

EDIT: how do I get the cool little blue box with the whole Quoted thing........ lol

 

[Blobweird123]

Super short answer since I just wrote a Stephen King novel in another post.

If we have a medium stack (not down to shove or fold mode yet) I will fold pairs 22-55 in EP. I will never limp. If we have a large stack, I will start to open these small pp's. This is for 9 handed. If we are on a shorthanded table, I will open any pair from any position if not in shove fold mode, and shove any pair if we are <15bbs.

All of this is general of course depending on opponents behind us. If we have very aggressive villains that like to 3bet behind, I will only open something like JJ+. More info really is needed for a descriptive answer.

 

[Jacki Burkhart]

these 2 guys quoted above are spot on!

A lot of horrible advice is being given in this thread, I am appalled how many players are advocating limping with small pocket pairs in early position....


110% behind missjacki here!!

EDIT: how do I get the cool little blue box with the whole Quoted thing........ lol

The way you quote with the blue box is Take the post you want to quote, in the lower right there is a blue quote box- click that and it will open a new window to reply with the quoted text in a blue box

 

[Weisssound]

wow alot of bad advice here with low PP :S

ok, its a myth that if you are in EP you should be limping in.....
unless you are deep stacked its bad play
if your first in the pot you should be the agressor
but in EP you risk being re raised
now if your opponents are exceptionally bad, then they will let you see a cheap flop and nobody will raise, but the more limpers the higer the raise will be, the higher the raise the less of a factor implied odds becomes.
Also from EP your out of position, so how do you play it?
do you get agressive if you hit a set, or slow play it?
if you slow play it what if it doesnt get raised?
how much are you going to get from your set realistically in an unopened pot?

so from EP your not looking to get involved
however when in late position, you have more info + opponents are more likely to raise before it gets to you from LP as a result you have implied odds, you can also see exactly how big the pot is before making your decision, and you have more options of "re raising, or flat call set mining"
depending on what your hoping to accomplish

Always comes down to the table. At the right table a 3xBB raise from early position can be seen as pretty strong. It's not necessarily a bad way to go. A pair against two over cards has about 50% of being the victor, so if you can isolate down to one person it's not a bad play. And even if you don't isolate down to one person, if enough people come in: a) chances are a lot of the high cards aren't in the deck any more (I know that's a logical fallacy, but there's still some truth to it), and (b) your hand equity still stays good because chances are if you catch a set you're probably ahead AND implied odds are good because if you do flop a set you'll probably get a caller if you bet out.

Lastly, if you have 4s, and the flop comes out A, K, 9, and two are suited, at the very least you know to fold out. You might even get lucky and get a free card if your opponent tries to trap you.

2s, 3s, and 4s have won me a lot more than they have lost.

 

[finese1]

UTG. If you are less than 50bb fold 22-66. If you are 3-6 bb all in. If you are 125bb raise whatever the hell you want that deep in the tourney. Two of the same cards going into the muck. It is not the worse thing in the world.

 

[abzdolc]

push if your stack not more as 15 bb, open raise if it's more 25 bb, 15-25 stack usually have to fold

 

[trent32la]

all depends on the situation...however I would saw "low" pocket pairs are 22-55...usually if im utg or +1 early on in a tourney...ill limp it and try and get a cheap flop....however mid-late it depends on my stack....if I have a big stack ill open raise...if im short 9-handed ill usually fold it preflop...shrot handed u can get away with raising them preflop a bit...the point is....dont overvalue small pairs...because its JUST a pair and your only flopping a set 11% of the time...however if you do flop 3 of a kind its a payday!

 

[pistolpetewags11]

wow alot of bad advice here with low PP :S

ok, its a myth that if you are in EP you should be limping in.....
unless you are deep stacked its bad play
if your first in the pot you should be the agressor
but in EP you risk being re raised
now if your opponents are exceptionally bad, then they will let you see a cheap flop and nobody will raise, but the more limpers the higer the raise will be, the higher the raise the less of a factor implied odds becomes.
Also from EP your out of position, so how do you play it?
do you get agressive if you hit a set, or slow play it?
if you slow play it what if it doesnt get raised?
how much are you going to get from your set realistically in an unopened pot?

so from EP your not looking to get involved
however when in late position, you have more info + opponents are more likely to raise before it gets to you from LP as a result you have implied odds, you can also see exactly how big the pot is before making your decision, and you have more options of "re raising, or flat call set mining"
depending on what your hoping to accomplish

Just want to hit the like button here and bump this comment.

 

[JustDestined]

Definitely situational, if you can limp in and are not way short stacked I like to see the flop especially if I am running good. I am finding it easier lately to muck these though when the situation isn't right, and this has helped me get deeper in the field on many occasions.

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[jj20002]

depends on your stack, n stage of the mtt (itm or not)

basically if your stack is short just push, if midle stack fold, if big stack open raise (good chance to have everybody fold or one or 2 callers, however if a shortstack pushes you can call, if a middle stack pushes just fold and if big stack raises you fold)

 

[nykaktak]

a lot depends on what kind of image you have created yourself at the table,and what is the size of your stack,but I also almost always fold hands such as 22,33,44,55, in early position and start playing just Colom with pocket pairs tipo 66,well, if there is not hit the flop, and get a raise to 3bb have to reset, or to put yourself continuation bet in the hope that opponent discards a card in pass