How aggressive to play top pair?

[starting_at_the_bottom]

Are you suggesting that top pair, an underpair to the board and all pairs in between should be played similarly?

Nope

 

[tohos]

Are you suggesting that top pair, an underpair to the board and all pairs in between should be played similarly?

There's no shortage of micro players who over-rate hands less than TPTK. It's quite profitable to play for stacks against them with TPTK. The key is to identify them rather than avoiding such situations against everyone.

This.

You need to play your hands while thinking of the possible hands villain can have based on his table image and the way he plays his hands. Take notes of tendencies. Most of the times overpair is best hand on a dry board and you should be betting for value. So be aggressive and reevaluate where you stand depending on the action against solid players.

Against fish/bad maniacs **** it play for stacks if they made some sort of 2 pair with trash like Q2o then so be it. You just have to accept it as one of the rare times you pay him off instead of the other way round.

 

[hffjd2000]

Based on my experience, if you have top pair or overpair, then the best thing for you to do is to value bet. Your opponent might draw on you on the 4th street if you check and if they call, they might just still be drawing or have 2nd pair. At least your trying two things, your forcing them to fold and get the pot and lastly, your stopping them to draw on you.

 

[DaBrowner]

Some time the draws will hit, but in the long run you want the other players chasing the draws, you'll win more than you''ll lose.

 

[Karozi615]

It's hard to give one specific answer because different situations require different techniques. In your example, having KK (an overpair to the flop on a dry board) the flop is easy to play. If you opened in position you C-bet. If you called a raise you check/call. If your opponent is a supernit or the board is wet you just play with more caution and be prepared to fold. Betting gives you A. value B. protection, those are the two things you want. Your getting value from Q's and protection from draws getting free cards.

 

[TheNoobie]

I play them aggressive against passive players and passive against aggressive players. Its important to know what one will do. If you see that a player tends to bet big you can check him and flat-call his raises. If you play against a passive player you dont want to slow-play that. Because you got your pair and checking him will give him a free chance to improve his hand. If you have an overpair against a passive player you usually want to bet big to make his calls harder to calculate. If you got the Kings and the highest card on the board is Queen you would bet big enough, so if he does have an Ace or something, he would pay and if he doesnt hit you will get his money. I sometimes do the same to flush or straight draws with a pair. If I see 2 hearts on the flop I bet big both to make my opponent thinks Im relying on the flush to make my hand and to bet against his hand. So if he pays on the flop, turn and the river and his flush doesnt hit you beat them. Trouble is .. sometimes it hits and you dont have the hand to hold up. Anyways, you need to know your opponents - do they check, raise or fold to bigger bets. Whats their style and so on. If an opponent tends to fold to a 3BB bet and I hold the kings I would bet smaller to take some more chips from him eventually. And If I hold a lower pair I would bet bigger to force him to fold so his hand doesnt improve eventually.

 

[hffjd2000]

At micro, you have to raise big enough if you have those top pairs preflop just to weed those hands that can hurt you. If they re still sticking on the flop and turn, then back off and just check or fold. They have a hand that you are beat already. You can see crazy things happening at micro, like AA beaten by 63, etc.