$2 NLHE 6-max: Playing Over-pairs on the Flop

[redboy23]

Hello fellow CCers,

I am in a $.01/.02 NLHE 6 max and pick up pocket pairs deciding to take a flop.

I do not hit a set but at least I have and over - pair.

I am trying to find the right balance to aggressive play in this situation and have tried several approaches and still seem to be haunted in one form or another.

My general planned approach is to bet the flop and turn if there is a lower card in the absence of three suited cards or straight dander. Then when when it is time to carry it out, I freeze and remember all the sick jokes, then go into passive mode or fold to aggression.


In responding to this post, I would like some general approaches against various player types first before looking at the hands and giving specific feedback.

Here are two of the boards which are nagging me.

Hand 1 - tight aggressive player

Pocket Q's in BB

Hand 2 - aggressive player who likes pocket pairs

Pocket 8's in CO

When responding pause on each street and tell me what you would suggest differently if any; pre-flop and post-flop etc.


I would also appreciate your feedback on the following:

I would also like to know if there is a document that I can et my hands on for ranges in cash games.

What hands to you 3-bet and 4-bet with?

Thanks in advance!

 

[JimmyBrizzy]

Your first hand with the queens is a blunder so I can't say much other than you need to be 3 betting that big against someone with ~50bb's to try and get it all in preflop or on the flop. Maybe reraise to 12bb or more.

For the second hand it's an awkward spot because you only have about 50bb again. I recommend you top off to $2 and retain at least 100bbs to get your optimal value. I would have folded preflop given your stack size and an UTG min raising followed by a 3bet. I guess your other option is to just shove.

3 betting should be about 5-10% of your hands and will be different depending on your position, players, stack sizes, etc. Someone can correct me if they have a better example or ranges to provide.

 

[Aballinamion]

Hello fellow CCers,

I am in a $.01/.02 NLHE 6 max and pick up pocket pairs deciding to take a flop.

I do not hit a set but at least I have and over - pair.

I am trying to find the right balance to aggressive play in this situation and have tried several approaches and still seem to be haunted in one form or another.

My general planned approach is to bet the flop and turn if there is a lower card in the absence of three suited cards or straight dander. Then when when it is time to carry it out, I freeze and remember all the sick jokes, then go into passive mode or fold to aggression.


In responding to this post, I would like some general approaches against various player types first before looking at the hands and giving specific feedback.

Here are two of the boards which are nagging me.

Hand 1 - tight aggressive player

Pocket Q's in BB

Hand 2 - aggressive player who likes pocket pairs

Pocket 8's in CO

When responding pause on each street and tell me what you would suggest differently if any; pre-flop and post-flop etc.


I would also appreciate your feedback on the following:

I would also like to know if there is a document that I can et my hands on for ranges in cash games.

What hands to you 3-bet and 4-bet with?

Thanks in advance!

Hand 1 you could have 3-bet preflop but the call is not the end of the world.
I can't say very much because I don't play Middle Stack Strategy, but overall, this is a very general question, when and where we should be 3-betting and 4-betting, very complicated question and not possible to answer shortly.
In this hand 1 I think you should not have folded OTR.

Hand 2 I think we should be calling OTF more often than raising, but it seems natural to be raising too, no problems.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

 

[gustav197poker]

If you want to be a better micro stakes player you must follow some simple rules.
1) Play with a full stack of 100 bb, so you can maximize your profit and minimize your losses.
2) Make re-raise in preflop when you are in the blind position and you are dealt high pockets. (JJ; QQ; KK; AA).
In this case, you should also make a cbet flop since you need to print the maximum possible value on each street. On the turn you should jam since you have a short stack and a good hand to continue.

In hand 2 you must jam on the turn, putting all the pressure on the villain ( bacause again you were short stack). Possibly you were going to lose anyway, but many times you will win and even the villain has an adequate SPR to fold on the turn, in many other similar scenarios.
Greetings.

 

[redboy23]

Hand 1 you could have 3-bet preflop but the call is not the end of the world.
I can't say very much because I don't play Middle Stack Strategy, but overall, this is a very general question, when and where we should be 3-betting and 4-betting, very complicated question and not possible to answer shortly.
In this hand 1 I think you should not have folded OTR.

Hand 2 I think we should be calling OTF more often than raising, but it seems natural to be raising too, no problems.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

Thanks, I can see merit with your suggestions.

I must admit there is much to be done with my 3-betting and 4-betting, as I hardly ever do it without AA or AKs.

The players in those hands were quite aggressive and would generally re-raise so I was careful not to antagonize them . If I jam there, I suppose I maximize fold equity and I really felt like I was ahead on the hands. I failed to bite the bullet!

 

[redboy23]

Hand 1 you could have 3-bet preflop but the call is not the end of the world.
I can't say very much because I don't play Middle Stack Strategy, but overall, this is a very general question, when and where we should be 3-betting and 4-betting, very complicated question and not possible to answer shortly.
In this hand 1 I think you should not have folded OTR.

Hand 2 I think we should be calling OTF more often than raising, but it seems natural to be raising too, no problems.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

You make a good point with the 3-bet recommendation. I will pay attention and use it more often.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[teh_colonel_saigon]

OK homie... a lot of people touched on the basics, so I'll have to reiterate those points as well because they are important.

Hand 1: I think QQ is only a flat vs an UTG open, and even then not 100% of the time.

When you 3bet, you can do it
a) as a bluff or
b) for value against V's continuing range

V will continue wider since he is in position and certainly with worse hands. On top of that he is short stacked- this is also a sign that he is a bad player at 2nl. :icon_porc

As played, you now face a semi wet flop which V will check behind a good deal. Donking is a territory I don't know much about- there might be an argument for it but I don't mind the standard "procedural check."

I would do this with the intention of check-raising. There are many bluffs you can have on this board and you are doing well against V's range here. I'd 2bet bluff and call/jam over any flop 3bets vs a short-stacked fish.

But, V checks behind. Alas! To the turn.

The Js makes the board more connected... the J is really the only card you wanted to see (which is why donking/xraising would be good on the flop) since it can give V a pair worse than yours.

I would lead out here or go for a large check raise. I think I personally would lean for a XR (not knowing the opponent) since V can bet out with a lot of his weaker hands here for protection once you show some weakness. :bandit:

Again, this is a value hand for you and you've already missed 2 streets of value. The only problem is V is pretty weak, but if he has the A or K of spades he may call down. At best V has AJ. But since he is a bad player maybe he will call with Ax with the Ace of spades.

On the river, the only realistic hand you beat is KJ and V might not even bet that depending on what type of player he is. Ax with the Ace of spades improved, and AJ made two pair. I'd lean towards a fold here. Well done.:star:


Hand 2: Set mining requires you make 10x your investment to book a profit. You literally cannot make that much as you are short stacked. You have position with a decent pair, but you are against two very strong ranges. You might even get squeezed some percentage of the time. I might be too nitty but I'd fold this pre unless I was at 100bbs.

As played- you get to the flop, UTG donks, HJ calls and you are sitting there with an over pair. You likely have the best hand, but you still don't have a ton of equity since your opponents have 2 overs, likely one of them with a fd to go with it (meaning you are technically BEHIND here!).

So, I like your raise. You should be planning to shove any turn that is not a club or a card J or higher (so shove T of hearts if it hits)- Gustav recommends shoving anyway, and there is some sense to that as well. If V is really that wide here it would work. You only need it to work about half the time due to pot odds.

And thus your strategy actually worked if you think about it. Your raise got villain to cool down- he didn't fold, rightly though because he has so much equity. You are forced to shut down due to the Q, but any other card you'd be looking good. As played you checked it to show-down.

If you had 100bbs I'd like this a heck of a lot more as there are huge implied odds in these 3bet pots.

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General 3/4betting strategy
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I'm still improving with 3/4bet pots myself... But you already identified that V in hand 2 is 3betting aggressively, and often with pocket pairs. I've seen players like that before, who overvalue a pair preflop and overplay it post flop.

You will want to spend some time developing a counter strategy with some 4bet bluffs (very few, and only if V is folding to 4bets) and calling wider when in position. If they are pocket pair heavy, you likely can float many flops in position quite profitably.

This particular opponent isn't too aggressive post flop (imagine if he raised that donk bet on the flop!) so he should be relatively easy to outplay, and in part you did well in that scenario. :driver: