Most Difficult Pocket Pair to Play

I would say jacks, do you come out with a huge raise or do you just make a small raise. If a king queen or ace comes out your jacks may go to waste so it makes it hard theres always a chance you get jacks someone gets a ace king ace queen ect. one of those cards come out and your jacks are done. I hate them i often find myself just going all in pre flop with them.

What do you think is the most dificult pocket pair to play before the flop?

Take your pick 8,9,or 10's. Jacks are still a power hand and should be played as such. The problem is most low stakes players outright refuse to throw away an ace regardless of your raise, that is why they seem to get cut often. Yes you absolutely need to consider dumping your hand if overcards come out especially an ace. I will usually represent I have aces after the flop with my bets if I have K,Q, or J's. But if you get called or fired back at cut your losses and fold.

I agree with xdamanx007 people who call your hefty raise usually are holding aces . if thre is an overpair showing just lay it down if someone reraises after flop.

Dueces are the hardest to play.

xdmanx007 said:

Jacks are still a power hand and should be played as such.

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There's not a poker expert in the world who would classify pocket Jacks as a "power hand". It's a solid middle hand which should be played with great caution from middle and late position.

All of them, as no pair is invincible. Would rather be dealt suited connectors, preferably AK...

RammerJammer said:

There's not a poker expert in the world who would classify pocket Jacks as a "power hand". It's a solid middle hand which should be played with great caution from middle and late position.

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Rammer! J's are the 4th ranked preflop hand ....

I like playing pocket aces....lol

Pocket Jacks.

Queens and up, you've got a pretty nice hand already.

Tens and down, you'll usually need trips to continue.

Jacks are in the middle tricky area.

I like any paint pairs. J,Q,K,A are all powerful pre-flop hands. The key is PRE-flop. As soon as the flop comes down and there is an overcard, you have to seriously reevaluate your situation. Would your opponent call a nice bet pre-flop with any-ace? What's on the board? How much do you have invested? How much will it cost to continue if you flopped a drawing hand as well as the Jacks? Maybe you would want to make a bluff at the pot and portray Aces. There are so many variables when playing high pairs after the flop. Situation evaluation is the key to it in my experience.

JJ is hand you can bet big on because it beats a lot of other pairs, but its easy to throw away if someone bets big on the flop, especially if an over card hits. i think people over value jacks because the fact that its a painted card.

play JJ strong preflop, then depending on the flop hit, play it accordingly.

To me, pocket jacks can easily be a dead hand. I would just make a small bet in the beginning before the flop to avoid being pot commited.

I think any pair lower than 7s are hard to play.you know you want to make a set on the flop and control the hand.

xdmanx007 said:

Rammer! J's are the 4th ranked preflop hand ....

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You're right, 007. That was a stupid remark on my part, based upon my own preferences and perceptions rather than knowing my tables. I went to a half-dozen different sources, including Doyle Brunson, Mike Caro, Tom McEvoy, and several No Limit websites. They all list JJ in the top tier of starting hands, with AA, KK, QQ, and AKs. I was dead wrong on that one. Thanks for correcting me.

(But I still wouldn't play JJ like AA or KK, would you?) :hahaha: :elefant:

I think the QQ is semi hard to play, cause you need to be very cautios..
Also AA and KK is semi hard cause you need to think so much. ^^
Low pair I just limp in with and hope for a set.

pairs from 2 to 7....i limp in and hope to spike on the flop...maybe even check or call a small bet to 4th if able...9's and ten's...i'll raise and play accordingly on the flop...j,q,k,a...i'll raise and represent...

JJ is a hand you have to raise with pre flop, no slow playing. It's a strong starting hand but there are still 12 cards out there to beat you before the flop and limping with it will tend to get you in trouble. I would not go all in with Js unless i was short stacked, but raise at least 3times the bb. Sometimes i feel it would be better to have 10-J suited than Js lol.

Personally i find pokcet pairs nice to have, but you are counting on hitting a set with them to make them count.

g/l

J,J is not the 4th ranked hand preflop hand.

QQ is considered 4th by most pro's

A,A
K,K
A,K suited are considered the 3 most powerful preflop hands.

J,J is considered 5th or 6th behind Q,Q and most pros say A,Q suited.

Pocket pairs are realy easy to play. If a over card comes you just need to be willing to throw them away if strength is shown.

Jacks are a farely strong preflop hand. But keep in mind the strength of your haqnd changes every time a card is turned over. If the flop comes Trash, you hand hasn't improved but the strength of it has because the odds of a over card coming is less likely. If a over card comes on the flop than your hand strength is weaker. The more over cards to come the weaker your hand becomes.

i also hate pocket twos - you go in on them but that means you have bottom pair which is not enough to win with. That is unless you get another deuce on the flop.

t1riel said:

Dueces are the hardest to play.

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ok t1riel, how can you say deuces are the hardest to play, i love deuces for one reason, ppl look at the flop and say it is A 7 2 they act like the 2 isnt there. People dont take the ducks seriously, but they take all the higher pocket pairs seriously. My fav starting hand is the ducks because they always help me and people dont look at ducks as serious as they should...


roud:

Yeah, meanwhile, somebody has Ace, Seven and the turn is another Ace or they have seven, whatever and the turn is another seven. If you can hit a two on the flop, GREAT! But, there are two more cards left and odds are the other player has higher cards.

I heard Paul ****ing Phillips say...( or someone else if im wrong)

Pair of J,"s aree the hardest to play'


You wanna play them....but u lose with them

A common amateur mistake is to overvalue JJ. JJ is not a monster hand as someone who calls your big raise or all in probaby has a higher pocket pair or AK or AQ. So you really aren't getting great odds on your money.

Jacks are definitely the worst and so are pkt 2's. But I think the absolute hardest are 7's thru 10. Position is important in a situation when catching wired pairs like 7s thru 10. If your under the gun, I like to bet around 3 times the big blind and see who's gonna call or raise. What i've noticed is usually when you get a call, someone's got an iffy pkt pair also so be weary of the flop. If they give you a raise, it depends on how much more ontop. I still don't know what to do tho when I got pkt 10's and someone re-raises me all in. It really just ends up depending on how many people are still in the pot and how many chips the person raised me has left or more than I do.

I'm not really a fan of pocket pairs, because they are pretty bad unless you catch the 3rd, which is not very likely. Much rather have suited cards or connectors..or both.