Sometimes i have difficulty in playing pairs, especially small ones. Any recommendations? How much should i raise depending on the position or how should I protect them?
Hay again Biohazard858. First of all, be aware of your position. Like UTG I would not even play them. But you can try limping in, but if the pot is raised, you would need to fold. Later positions, and at a cheap price, you can call and hope to hit a set. I would not raise with low pairs no matter your position. Now I'm sure you are going to get some other good opinions. This is only the way I play. It works for me. GL to you
Call in my opinion is the best option with such hands. You should not take risks if you do not have sufficient grounds for this risk.
Sometimes i have difficulty in playing pairs, especially small ones. Any recommendations? How much should i raise depending on the position or how should I protect them?
Depends on position, board texture, opponent.
Try not to go crazy with small pocket pairs. If there's aggression in front of you, your 33 is probably no good. Ok to call a raise to try to flop a set, but if you miss, be ready to fold.
Two huge mistakes I see players make:
1) Unwilling to fold a small pair preflop no matter how many raises have occurred before him. You are rarely going to flop a set, so you will often be facing 3 overcards on the flop. What are you gonna do?
2) Going all in unnecessarily preflop. When you run low on big blinds in a tournament, it is perfectly fine to shove with a small pair, but I've seen guys go all in with 20+ BBs (sometimes much larger). The BEST you can hope for is a coinflip, and often you are dominated by a larger PP.
Once you get more comfortable though, and you are able to recognize player tendencies and read situations better, it's ok to play PPs differently.
I have seen a lot of players that during small pairs they always go all in. What do you think about that?
Yeah at higher limits u see this a lot, it depends which Positions openraise and your stacksize , if your stack is between 1bb-15bb in late position and middle position op, i almost jam every pair, its a profitable play, u still have fold equity and if he calls u are little a head , it will be a flip most off the time but in your favour like 55% vs 45%
Greetz Tiefgang
Preflop the main thing, people tend to do wrong, is to play the smallest pairs to often. From early position the lowest ones like 22-44 should often just be folded, and if someone else have already come into the pot, you dont always have to try to setmine against them. Its better to do it on BTN though than say from HJ, because then at least you have position postflop, and often you can do a bit more than just trying to hit a set.
In tournaments, when stacks get short, small pairs tend to perform even worse and just pretty much never be played, until stacks then become so short, that they can be open jammed (less than 15 bigs) or rejammed (less than 25 bigs). By being all in before the flop you take away the main problem with small pairs, which is, that they often flop a weak pair, which is a very difficult hand type to play.
If you do get to see a flop with a small pair, then postflop its just a hand like any other. Some boards are so good for C-betting, that you might choose to C-bet your entire range including a small pair. If you defended and missed, you should usually just give up, but sometimes you can peel in position on low boards, where the preflop raiser has missed a lot. Say you have 55 on 722, then I would not fold to a small C-bet, but I am also not planning on playing a huge pot, unless I get lucky and spike a 5 on the turn or river.
I have seen a lot of players that during small pairs they always go all in. What do you think about that?
I think it's just bingo. No more and no less.
Totally agree. Based on my skills and my gaming style i am playing very little or not at all small pairs. ThnxI can say this, if you are not a poker guru, then you need to play for set value with small pocket pairs. As practice shows, a lot of profit is devoured by these borderline hands when we put ourselves in difficult situations in which we cannot play or we do not do it very well.
Well the problem is that often that bingo brings more profits than playing according to the book.lol
Well the problem is that often that bingo brings more profits than playing according to the book.lol
I think you are wrong. I've never heard of bingo often making a profit.
Sometimes i have difficulty in playing pairs, especially small ones. Any recommendations? How much should i raise depending on the position or how should I protect them?
You never heard, i know some, so we can say that we are both wrong.lol