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Olddog21

Olddog21

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I've got about 6 freerolls under my belt, 1 ITM, 1 out early (aces cracked) before my second sip of coffee, but it's the other ones I wish to discuss to see if my stratagy is flawed! In 4 games I've made it pasted the last 40 standing (or sitting in this case) hovering around the bubble when I've gotten a mixture of painted-pocket-pairs, QQ's KK's QQ's and JJ's! In each case I've pushed all-in because I thought that's the type of match up I should be looking for....Heads up play with the over pair...but in each one of those hands I lost to a small or middle pair by an opponent who had me covered in chip count! Now ...my question is with only 40 ppl left should I stop pushing all-in with big pairs or continue this stratagy and hope my bad luck is behind me? Thank you for your time...:icon_bigs :icon_bigs :icon_bigs
 
irishlatent

irishlatent

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it depends on the situation to be honest. There are times with 40 people left I would muck JJ and there are time I would push with them. Position, reads, stacks...etc all come into effect. Do you have a hand history you could post?

That being said..

A. In freerolls (hell, in a lot of games at the FR and lower limit) People LOVE playing Ax Kx Qx...etc so most of the time (most of the time, I say) im holding JJ on a tight table and I see an overcard hit with action, im out of the hand. period.

B. small pair vs two overcards is around a 55-45 coinflip, if you are ITM with 40 people left, do you want to put your life on a coinflip? (this is assuming you have the reads to put someone on a smaller pair)
 
absoluthamm

absoluthamm

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Olddog, you're leaving out a lot of information. When you've been pushing all-in, was it preflop/postflop? Were you in position or not? What was your stack size in relation to the blinds? Your opponent's stacks??? All of these come together in explaining whether you made the right play or not.

If you had a short-mid stack and it folded around to you and you pushed allin with say ~6BB left preflop....in all of your situations above, you made the right play.

Same stack, but before it gets to you someone else pushes first, you might want to think about folding your hand, depending on how tight and/or aggressive they have been.

Once it goes post flop, you could be in some trouble, depending on how preflop went. Did you let a lot of people in cheap? If so, any aggression could mean that someone made something like top two pair on a raggy board. In that situation, it would look great for you because you'll think, "Hey, I have all of the pairs on the board beat...", but not the 2 pr. If any card higher than your pair hits the board, the same thing happens if you let a lot of people in cheap.

fact of the matter is, no matter how good you end up getting at poker, your AA and KK will still get cracked from time to time, your sets will lose to higher sets and maybe if you're lucky, you'll have the idiots end of a straight flush and lose to the higher end.... nothing can stop it, but by playing and learning as much as you can, hopefully you won't lose as much/often with them.
 
O

only_bridge

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6 freerolls isnt enough to draw any solid conclution. As long as people call with weaker hands its good to push. You wont always win the all-in, but you will win most of the time.
When the blinds go up you cant afford to just sit back and wait for a big pair though. You need to find some way to accumulate chips even when the dealer gives you nothing.
 
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