How do you play AA? KK? QQ? JJ?

A

anthonydalvaro

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In a cash game, to maximize profit, how do you play these hands? Do you slow play AA? Or do you shove it? What about KK? QQ? JJ? What about the rest of the pocket pairs? Slow playing can be dangerous. But so can shoving it? What are your thoughts on this?
 
weralomos

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at micro limits once fully exposed preflop 1010+
 
BuzzKillington

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I play them aggressively. Shoving early with AA and KK is much safer than allowing your opponent to cheaply improve their hand and get good odds, but generally you don't want to shove right away (first you raise and re-raise). AA and KK are not invincible. They have very good odds pre-flop (~85% equity), but in the end they're just high pairs.

I also play QQ and JJ aggressively, but they're somewhat weaker, especially JJ. So I 3-bet with JJ, but I would generally fold JJ to a 4-bet against a tight player.

Note that JJ has 78% equity against any random hand, but people rarely play all hands. Especially against a tight player, with a range of say 10%, you only have a slight edge pre-flop (59%). And if the flop comes with A x x, then you only have 37% equity, since the probability of a tight player having A is much higher than a loose player (otherwise they would have folded to your raise).
 
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You certainly should be playing all these hands with aggression pre flop. No matter what position you are in you should always be raising, If it raised before you then this is the perfect opportunity to go in for a 3 bet. Just like what buzzKillton said ^^^ the only hand i would possibly back down from if I get 4 betted would be the JJ especially if the guy is tight. Ex. Villain could realistically have QQ-AA AQs-AKs Ak and maybe KQs depending on his range.

Also I would by no means slow play any of these post flop because once again you give the villain better odds to improve there hand into something that beats you and then that's when your pocket pair will end up costing you yuuuuuuuge.
 
EllinLucky

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I play those hands aggressively too. Slowplay with AA-QQ always lost for me. You must be careful with QQ-JJ on the flop Axx or Kxx. Preflop allin with JJ in not good for BSS.
 
Peppinotom

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After I lost so many big pots with shoving high pairs, I got used to treat them just like any other pocket pair. I like to see the flop ;)
Sure I raise sometimes in late positions or utg, but not that much anymore, I got beaten too many times by thrips of 4, straight draws from 2 to 8.
I'll give it a try a time and compare stats after a while:bike:
 
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the0

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You slowly the monster hands and try to get a muliiway pot then get as much moneyin to the center as posible
 
Gulas

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After I lost so many big pots with shoving high pairs, I got used to treat them just like any other pocket pair. I like to see the flop ;)
Sure I raise sometimes in late positions or utg, but not that much anymore, I got beaten too many times by thrips of 4, straight draws from 2 to 8.
I'll give it a try a time and compare stats after a while:bike:

That happens to me too. But I wonder if this happens frequently, or I just have a selective bias, focusing too much on the losing hands.

I'm building enough data with sheets and trackers. Though it's very tempting, I'm trying to reduce my shoves.

See ya.
 
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Peppinotom

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Well, an important point here is the statistics again. Let's say you have 20% to round it up, meaning you win 1 out of 5 AA. So you can throw away the 4 times you get them dealt in the first round and play them at important stages of the tournament. Maybe you've thrown away the right ones, maybe ... you tilt:icon_bigs.
What I want to say is, when you go all in a million times with pocket aces in your life, you would loose a lot of money. You have to make the winning ones more worthy, than you lost on the other 4. So wouldn't it be best to keep losses small? because winning big when you hit the board isn't that difficvult in these days:angel:
 
wsbar

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Hello fellow poker table. I see many beginners make the mistake of playing very aggressive pre-flop Premium hands, I particularly like to play this type of hand in many ways. If I am in the Button and all the Fold opponents, I raise a raise already with the intention of stealing blinds myself, I do not want my opponent with 89s to hit a Straight or Flush. If I'm in the hijack and depending on the opponents' action before me, I can even Fold a hand like AA if any villain before me is allin.
 
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