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tca3rd

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a small(2 - 9) pair be played? I hate to play them and usually fold depending on how many are in a hand after the flop, but before the flop how should they be played. any and everyones opinion is helpful
 
newbie in training

newbie in training

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When its fr its easy just play as if deep stacked and by the time the blinds get bigger a few players get knocked out then you loosen up and by the time its 3 handed its a lot of if your gonna be in a hand get ready to shove

In hu match then your going to be playibg a ton of marginal hands especially when the blinds get bigger

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BLACKSTACK

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depends its not a straight forward answer, I play them 75% of thr time limping in or a small raise or call a small raise, if you hit trips most of the time it will pay off, If you miss its a small loss and can fold post flop

cash,mtt sng
lag,tag,nits will aslo affect
blibd level
and most important your stack size
 
DrazaFFT

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I try to make myself to fold pre 22-88 in early, raise/fold to 3 bet from middle, raise/flat from late, raise 99/flat from early position. This would be my default tactic that i have to be honest i dont follow like it is put to stone i would do that if i dont have any idea of my opponents and i just sat at the table, talking about micro cash game btw, when i see that the game is looser and there is a lot of limper and callers i'd play them all from early with 3bb opening but considering who is my opponent i would consider what to do if he 3 bets if he is quiet and tight i would probably fold if he 3 bets a lot i would either flat or 4 bet if i would have position on him post flop and if i think that i can outplay him, this is just roughly way of thinking im not standing strongly behind but this is how i look at it and how i make my decisions... hope this helps at least a bit
 
etherghost

etherghost

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Late position limp or early position raise depending on stack sizes and player aggression. If you have LAG players at the table be careful with small pockets. My general rule is to invest as little as possible preflop with PP. If I hit a set I'm set. :D
 
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jj20002

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paying min and 20x

a small(2 - 9) pair be played? I hate to play them and usually fold depending on how many are in a hand after the flop, but before the flop how should they be played. any and everyones opinion is helpful

depending on your stack and the price to see the flop (1 or 2 blinds tops) you could play this pairs

if there are raises before you, is a easy fold always unless you almost done and are in despair you can push 99 or 88

if you are in late positions you and nobody raises before you, you can make a raise,

also depends if you are playing a mtt full ring or a cash or hu (if a hu you can play them always)
 
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a small(2 - 9) pair be played? I hate to play them and usually fold depending on how many are in a hand after the flop, but before the flop how should they be played. any and everyones opinion is helpful

Well preflop isn't too complicated compared to post but it obv depends on what kind of game we're talking about here. My area of forte these days is 6max/shorthand cash play and when I constructed my preflop opening ranges I decided I wanted all 78 paired combinations in my utg range (as well as subsequent positions) for a couple different reasons. It kinda sucks when the board is like 236 and you're trying to play out of position with at best an overpair. We're all trained to think about how our opponents' ranges (3betting and what have you) fare on various flop textures but we can't forget to think about our own the same way.

If you're a tourney player the late game stuff should be pretty straightforward. You can just play around with something like sng wizard if you need to fine tune your shallow game. Early tournament play I might compare to cash play in some ways. It's not exactly the same and you have to bear in mind things like the speed of the tournament and the general ability of the field (think mathematical mode). I would suggest not getting too cute with pocket pairs. I'm not saying you need to play "set or forget" per se, but it's an interesting phenomenon how people like to call off chips with a pair in the hole because they're sort of rabbit hunting that 2 outer or it's like "hey I've got a bluff catcher let's go catch some bluffs!" or yeah. I dunno. It's 8am and I need to go to bed. Up all night playing teh pokerz as usual and my brain is fried. I grunched the topic btw.
 
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Blue_Fossil

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So many variables that can affect what you should do. One thing I do is pretty much treat those pairs all the same pre-flop. That means that I'll raise pre the same amount with any of those pairs (same amount for the bigger pairs, too, but that is a different question), or simply call if there has been a raise in front of me.

If there has been raising in front of me, and the players have been tight, or at least not hyper-agressive, I'll fold the low end of those pairs (22, 33, maybe 44). Otherwise call and hope to connect with a set.

If I'm short-stacked in a tournament, I'll likely shove with any pocket pair.
 
rock0001

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well it depends in the amount of players. in heads up having a pair even 22, is a very good preflop hand. in a full ring table ( 9 or 10 players) you have to be very careful with these types of hands. In early positions its better to fold them, or maybe limping, and in very rare cases raise them ( to wide your range in that position and became unpredictable). medium pairs like 99 or 88 seems to have more value than lower pairs than 22 or 33, however if you dont hit a set both types of pairs are in most cases very weak to win a showdown. With these speculative hands you should try to see a cheap flop and try to hit a set. if you dont get it, you can check fold, but the benefits that medium pairs have over the small pairs, are that in a flop like 428, with pocket nines, and if no one shows strenght you could try to win the pot by bettting aggresively on the flop.
 
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wardy

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I don't typically play tourneys but in both cases (tourney and cash) I think it's crucial to consider: your position, the pot odds you're receiving, and the type of players that are involved in the hand. Odds of hitting a set on the flop are 7.5 to 1, so considering that and the betting sequences during preflop, you should be able to make your decisions a little more easily.
 
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