how to play pocket pairs. But you must tread carefully, as things can go badly wrong. how to play pocket pairs

 
 But you must tread carefully, as things can go badly wronghow to play pocket pairs  However

That’s a lot of missing, but the 12% of the time we. Warnings (play with caution) - Over cards on the board, possible straights, flushes, the board is paired. The effective size of your stack is one of the biggest considerations when deciding how to play your pocket pair. Have an overpair to the board (your pocket pair is better than all the cards on the flop). Fair strategy, but. Many times, though, Pockets Kings are forced to see a flop. This means that when holding King-Jack suited on a or type of board, it’s a good idea to start building the pot right from the flop. If we hit our set we play for value. Sets are often hidden and you can easily stack someone who has top pair or an overpair. About 36% of the time pocket jacks will hold up as an over pair, while 41% of the time there will be overcards that beat jacks with top pair. 9% (once every 17 hands). The tighter your opponent’s 3-betting range is, the more pocket pairs you should call with. Q–Q is usually worth a raise or three-bet (this. In the case of having low pocket pairs, the position becomes even more important and, as usual, several factors need to be considered. #13. Middle position gives players a little more breathing room to play low pocket pairs. 4. 8824% or 1 : 16. Trips and two pair are bread-and-butter value-betting hands. 3. Limping should be avoided, no matter how tempting it might be to “set the trap ” or “ set mine ” with it. 12 hand combinations of each unpaired offsuit hand. One of the ideal scenarios when playing Kings is when you’re opponent hits a Queen or Jack on the flop, with a strong kicker. 1. Play pocket pairs aggressively . Specifically, Ace-Ten offsuit is worth raising from every position at a 6-handed table. Despite being attractive preflop, small pocket pairs are notorious for causing problems postflop, forcing even the experienced players in to making unprofitable decisions. After the flop you need to put your opponent on a range and analyze the strength of your hand before deciding how to proceed. There are 6 different ways to form a. The less opponents in the hand the better. Many amateurs fall into this bad habit because they are the #1 starting hand. Conditions for Playing Small Pairs. When the action folds to you and you have Ace-Ten offsuit, you should almost always raise. The probability of being dealt a pair in Texas Hold’em is 5. But if you misplay them your chip stack could be seriously suffering. Related Reading: How to Play Small Pocket Pairs in 6-Max Hold'em; SnG ABCs: Small Pocket Pairs; Top-Pair Hands. 9. Small pocket pairs (66 through 22) are more speculative hands, so they are best played as set mines when the stack sizes are very deep. When blockers are in play, we can use two simple rules to count up specific combos. In this video, we cover simple strategy recommendations on how to play premium, medium, and small pocket pairs. How to Play Low Pocket Pairs. Playing small pairs incorrectly is one of the biggest mistakes that less experienced players make. In this article, we’ll try to dissect the strategy behind playing pocket pairs in poker. A pocket pair is when a player is dealt two cards of the same rank, such as two aces or two sixes. Many times, though, Pockets Kings are forced to see a flop. Pocket pairs can be some of the most profitable hands in poker. Small Pairs. But you shouldn’t always just check and fold with an underpair. Tip #1 – Lean heavily towards c-betting with your top pairs Top pairs are strong hands on the flop. Key Points: Fold in early position to a raise; call big blind and late position. In contrast, you can expect to receive any pocket pair once every 35 minutes on average. 1. When you have a chance to bet, you can increase the size of the pot to your desire. Flop a set (three-a-kind) 2. . 8% of the time, as mentioned. 2%. These starting hands can be very profitable to play because if you are lucky enough to hit trips, if you play the hand well, you can scoop a really big pot. This means that you should try to hit 3 of a kind with your small pocket pairs on the flop. This means there are: 16 possible hand combinations of every unpaired hand. If you raise with these pocket pairs you’re building a pot with a weak hand. 4) When you hit your set, play it fast. 9% chance of being dealt a pocket pair. Pocket aces are without a doubt the best starting hand one can be dealt in the game of hold’em. Forum. Let’s run through every common preflop spot one by one. Pocket queens should be one of your absolute biggest winnings hands. Let’s take a look at one such scenario: Example: The Button raises and the Big Blind calls. This is a difficult hand for the draw, because. The pre-flop hand values normalize and it becomes more of a post-flop chess game. How to Play Suited Poker Hands. As mentioned, it all depends on the situation when playing Texas Hold 'em. In this article, we’re going to look at some common scenarios to help you play pocket tens more effectively. You want to lean toward betting whether you hit the Queen or the Ten top pair. 5x the original raise, you can justifiably call with your lowest pocket pairs. One last thing to consider: you shouldn't only play small pocket pairs to set mine. TYPES OF POCKET PAIRS. Add a second player with another pocket pair to the hand and your chance at losing the pot doubles. Ace-queen. At a six-handed table, however, the odds another player has a higher pocket pair are reduced to 16. Early position just fold. The notation 22+ means you should be playing 22 and all other higher-ranking pocket pairs. Best Online Poker Sites. The order of poker hand rankings (from the highest/best to the lowest/worst) is: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card. 20 poker hands odds and poker statistics you should know to improve your game. As with any hand, you can win if everyone else folds. However, as always, poker is a complex game with exceptions to general rules. The comparative looseness or tight playing styles from opponents who re-raise will give you a lot of. However, when you are the player making the last big bet you have the added benefit of fold-equity. Being dealt pocket QQs is kind of a mixed blessing. In other words it's a little bit like set-mining apart from the fact that we have a chunk of fold-equity preflop too. The Lowdown on Sets. Small pocket pairs might look nice as a starting hand, but you should be dumping most of them in early position. In general, set mining hands are low pocket pairs with which you want to see some cheap flops and hope to hit the jackpot. The last thing you want to do when you hit your set is to slow down and start checking and calling. It’s subjective and depends on a lot of different factors including table position, chip stacks, the blinds, and, of course, how you assess your opponents. Unlike small pairs, which you usually play for their set value, or big hands that are played for their face value, suited connectors are somewhere in between, and this leads to many complicated postflop spots. Before you get too excited when getting a pair during a poker game , read this article through because it is going to open your eyes to a few unpleasant aspects. When the preflop raiser has fewer than 60 big blinds in their stack, you should be less inclined to 3-bet suited connectors, particularly low ones like 65s or 76s. Enter the Pot With. Tip #1: Always c-bet for value when you flop top pair. According to PokerSnowie, you can only call such a raise with JJ or better. Do not slowplay. You should play these pair cautiously from late positions. Oct 16, 2014. Medium pocket pairs have some commonality with small pocket pairs, which usually need help to prevail at a showdown. If it's cash game, you may want to play any pocket pair to hit the set on the flop. It is important to be able to properly play the flop when you do not connect. 1. How to Play Medium Pocket Pairs Next up, we’re going to take a closer look at how to play medium pocket pairs. Most of the time you should limp in full ring games, though you can vary your play by raising about 20% of the time when no one has opened the pot. Early position just fold. Aggressively playing low pairs out of position requires you to have an excellent reading of your opponents and preferably a tight reputation. Instead, your strategy should be to scare the opponents into folding, even if it requires a bit of bluffing. How to play against a re-raise. This free Preflop Guide includes 8 easy-to-read charts and crucial tips that will help you play like a pro before the flop. Being able to join a limp fest versus being raised. IMO pocket pairs is a must play in fishy 1/2 stakes. These low boards are very favorable to the caller, so the 3-bettor should check back extremely often (on some boards they should even check 100% of the time). Cons: Lack of implied odds for set mining. From early position its completely fine to just fold or you can semi-bluff raise a small percentage of the time, I know low pairs make up a limping range for some guys but I personally don’t include them. In this article, we will explore unique methods for successfully playing small pocket pairs in live tournaments. The medium pocket pairs are 10-10,9-9, 8-8, 7-7 and 6-6. It might not seem obvious at first glance, but boards like 9♠ 5♣ 3♠ and T ♥ 8♣ 2♠ can setup some. 10 out of 49 = 20% - second card - multiplied by. In almost all circumstances getting all-in pre. Raises before the flop can work well with middle pocket pairs; however this does not mean that you should make a raise just because you think you have a good pair. This article covers: How to play Pocket Threes in common preflop situations. This applies to almost all hands you play, but especially to pocket pairs due to the fact that they don’t offer much flexibility on the flop, turn or river versus other hands. Let’s say you called a 3-bet preflop and the board comes A-J-5 rainbow. So, after playing millions and millions of hands at the micros and. Pretty simple. 1. The most common and practical way to play middle pocket pairs. Pocket pairs in Texas Hold'em are very useful cards. We’ll look. Against a single player with a random hand, you win 85% of the time, which equates to an $85 profit. Slang for pocket fours because the number 4 looks similar to a sail. Small pocket pairs: Small pocket pairs are the hardest hands to play and bet on. See moreThere are many ways to play pocket pairs in No-Limit Hold’em, but only a few are correct, and knowing the difference between the right way and the wrong way is going to save you money. If you play against one random hand, the probability to win is 77% to 85% of the time. Get dealt a hand like 5-5? If there are a few callers, making a call yourself might be worth a call as well. When you flop two pair, trips, a straight or a flush, you should basically always play your. g. Certainly, hands like 2-2 to 5-5 should be folded to any LP raise. Playing and Bluffing with Smaller Pocket Pairs. By Matthew Cluff. If you want to learn how to play specific starting hands like a pro, read one of the articles below. Hello, i've been playing a lot of cash games online lately, mostly 0,05/0,10, and dont really know how to play big pocket pairs after flop when there is an overcard. Multi-way pots after the flop. Double-Paired Boards As the Preflop Raiser from the Button. “Pocket queens” will almost always help a player in cash games or online poker tournaments so long as no aces or kings appear as community cards. For an improved article-browsing experience, go to our primary blog page here and use the check boxes at. engjosh88 • 11 yr. How to play with pairs on hand? How many times to raise, for example, with pairs smaller than 10/10? Forum. Pocket pairs are excellent starting hands in Hold’em due to their ability to flop a set (three of a kind). By the way, just to be clear, I’m referring to the numbers 22, 33, 44, 55, and 66 in this post. 7%. If someone raises in front of you, you should fold middling offsuit Aces every single time except when you are in the Big Blind. . Here is how to play your small suited aces, the definitive guide! 1. This is when you can win big pots. Tips for playing pocket aces. Even though they are pretty weak hands, playing them wrong will cost you expected value continuously. Why? These are the main ways your pocket pair can lose: Hitting at least one of the overcards. The deeper or larger your stack is, the more profitable it becomes to play small pairs due to the high implied odds on hitting a set. But you must tread carefully, as things can go badly wrong. One such advantage comes in the form of pocket pairs. Pocket pairs always have the potential to flop sets and, generally speaking, if you can flop a set you can bust someone. The reason for this is pretty obvious—discounting the times you flop a set, the value of middling pocket pairs postflop tend to be, well, middling. g. For this reason, many players will refuse to play pocket pairs below fives. This calls for passive play with your whole range, pocket aces included. Being dealt a pair of aces gives you the chance to win a huge pot. And so in this article I am going to show you step by step how to play your pocket queens more profitably. So despite pocket-pairs being low playability hands this is not the same as saying they are difficult to play. Many amateurs fall into this bad habit because they are the #1 starting hand. JJ is such a trouble hand that most beginners actually even hate having it dealt to them. 45% of the time. For example, you have on . Put simply, pocket queens is the third best hand in No Limit Hold'em. 3 tips for playing the crabs when you are the preflop raiser. Im finding this 10/1 implied odds is a load of rubbish, the chance of flopping a set is 1/8 i believe, now some of those times you wont win and you will probably lose a big pot, and the times you. Ks-Kc-Qd-Jh-5h. A player who enters a pot with one of these hands must recognize the potential of winning big or going broke, and be prepared to make critical decisions on later streets. In Omaha Hold ’em, a pocket pair would mean you have two same cards in your hand. Since a pair is a small favorite against any unpaired hand, pocket pairs can have substantial value in certain situations. The odds of hitting a set when holding a pocket pair is 7. Firstly you need to be aware that you’ll only hit a set on the flop 12. in a HU situation AK is better than low pocket pairs and also easily to play after flop, actually against more than one villain. By: Search Advanced search… Advanced search…How to Play Small Pocket Pairs Correctly. Pocket Pairs (99-22) Pocket pairs make huge hands when they flop sets. Do not get too enthusiastic with small pairs. Connectors •Cards that are separated in. When raising with A-K, you are primarily doing it for the third reason, whereas when raising with a hand such as AA, you are doing it for the second. So you’ll be flopping a set fairly infrequently but when you do you’ve got a very good chance of winning the hand. Learn to play these spots correctly, and stop making big e. How To Play Big Pocket Pairs. suited connectors down to 7-8, low pocket pairs and any suited ace). The Basics: How to Play Pocket Pairs in Poker. You should always start with a bet on the flop, and usually look to bet again on the turn and a final time on the river. The turn T ♥ checks through and the river is the 4♣. However, they put $100 each, so that’s 48% of $500, i. Unopened Pots. The whole concept of PLO preflop hand selection and hand strength is a bit more complicated than in holdem. How to Play Pocket Pairs | A Winner’s Guide "Plays" Strategies by Team RedSharkPoker 3 years ago 0 1048 Who doesn’t love pocket pairs in poker! Seeing two cards of the same value brings a big smile to your. 9-10 is tricky cause of the dumb dumb end of broadways . When you have pocket aces in your hand, it’s important that you try to build the pot quickly. Read about playing pocket pairs in No Limit Hold'em. Having any pair puts you ahead of all. 5% of the time (1/8) , which means you’ll need at least 7:1 pot-odds to call opening raises. The chance that you're opponent may fold increasing the profit from playing this hand considerably. In this vlog, I discuss how to play big pocket pairs and when to consider 3 betting and flatting preflop. 4 hand combinations of each suited hand. You know how good it feels to look down and see. 9%. When you flop two pair, trips, a straight or a flush, you should basically always fast-play your hand. In the instances where your Pocket Jacks have a smaller pair dominated, you always have to worry about those pesky, sneaky sets. Factor in that you can still lose even with a set. How to Play Pocket Queens Preflop. EV= 0. If you’re dealt a pair of queens when you play poker online games, you’ll have the last of the top three best starting hands. That’s why calling 3-bets with small pocket pairs is usually a losing play. If your opponent has two pair or something along those lines, it’s going to be hard for him to fold. If you hit your set you may get their entire stack. This means you have a 5. Small pocket pairs are a drawing hand. There is maybe a limper or two infront of us, or even a raise, usually to 0,25/0,30 cents. CardsChat Freerolls. Pocket pairs are a rather polarizing hand in that you either hit the board pretty hard or you miss completely. If we hit a set, we won't get value very often because he'll fold to a raise and probably give up after a c-bet if he missed. Do not slowplay. How to Play Big Pocket Pairs in Cash Games Big pocket pairs will usually be your biggest money makers…. You could justify slow play if the flop is composed of low-value connecting cards. This is a relatively rare occurrence, with the probability of being dealt a pocket pair at approximately 6%. Something like 7-6-4 fits nicely with the range of the player who called preflop. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. This does not apply in Omaha and a lot of Hold'Em players do not understand this. 5. That’s the goal of this lesson. Unless you want to leak money with your low pocket pairs, you’d be wise to employ a more in-depth strategy. If you hit a set then you should play your hand very aggressively. I talk about how to play pocket deuces out of position before. For example, 7-7 vs J-10, with the final board coming Q-9-8-7-2 (even making a set of sevens on the turn didn't save the pocket pair) A flush. It depends on the type of the game, your position and stack. that betting dilutes the value of your hand and being otherwise. Flop c-betting range: Sets, two pairs, most top pairs, 2 nd pairs, 3 rd pairs, low pocket pairs, open-enders, all gut-shots, runner-runner flush draws. 3 Tips for Pocket Sixes in 3-Bet Pots as the Preflop Caller Tip #1: If you have a middling pair and a backdoor flush draw, call even if the bet is large. Your strategy is defined by two main factors: the strength of your pocket. So, the chance of being dealt a pocket pair is 78/1326 = 5. One of the best ways for poker players to improve their game is to focus on playing only premium hands and ditching the junk. Against good, tight-aggressive players, small pocket pairs don’t play well when you’re out of. Small pocket pairs might look nice as a starting hand, but you should be dumping most of them in early position. There are thirteen different pocket pairs (one for each rank) and six different ways of making each. Your goal with KK in early position pre-flop is to take control of the pot and gather information about your opponents' hands. In this example, Player 1 DEFEATS Player 2 as showdown because of the superior “kicker” (an Ace). This turns a small profit situation to a negative expectation situation. Pocket Kings is the second best poker hand you can be dealt in Texas Hold’em poker, behind only pocket Aces. 8824% or 1 : 16. You should always start with a bet on the flop, and usually look to bet again on the turn and a final time on the river. Tip #3: If the board is paired, always fire a c-bet. If you can get in all the money before the flop, kudos to you, as you’ll likely be ahead of your opponent’s range. Remember that pocket Aces are not indestructible. 88%, or odds of 1 : 16. I play em pretty much like any other pair. Lock your seat now! The Advanced Solver Ranges for cash games — one of six sets of preflop charts in the Upswing Lab. 888poker investigates how often you should be playing them and whether to raise, call or fold. How to Play Aces. You want to build the pot, but you shouldn’t bet too big and step outside of your range. I like to raise the low PP's (22-55) in EP some 60-70% of the time and play them just as I would any big pair. , or one in three. . Pocket Pairs. Here are the table positions for your reference: Unopened Pots. Against a Middle Position raise, 3-bet if you are on the Button. This goes hand in hand with mistake #1. Get Bonus £400. Same as below, the stack sizes are the most critical thing to consider with a baby pair like 55. You should always raise with Pocket Fives preflop when the action folds to you in a 6-max game. Strengthen your poker skills and build your bankroll with this video demonstration. Tip #1 – When you flop top pair with the 9 in a single-raised pot, lean towards betting on the flop and checking on the turn. The low pocket pairs from 44 to 22 are weak hands that you should never play as a raise first in from early positions. . In other words, the play will win chips, but lose dollars in the long run. . If you want to go with a mixed strategy, then you should usually just call with Queen-Ten suited. While it seems like you get dealt pairs a lot, the actual odds of receiving any pocket pair is just 5. Paired boards are great for the player who is in position. Since I know many of you have asked me about playing mid pocket pairs in cash game, especially from out of position, I decided to make this quick Hand of the. Warnings (play with caution) - Over cards on the board, possible straights, flushes, the board is paired. 7%, or a 56. You should play these pair cautiously from late positions. Your goal is still to flop a set, but your post-flop play will. This makes a total of 78 combos out of 1,326. Once you play online higher stakes, stealing with Pocket Pairs becomes necessary to show a profit. Feedback is always encouraged!Of course, the more sophisticated player understands that pocket fives can often be a complex and challenging hand to play. In Limit Holdem low pocket pairs can be played in virtually any position without a 3bet. If you hold a pocket pair and get the third matching card from the board, that’s called a set. The chance that you're opponent may fold increasing the profit from playing this hand considerably. Pocket Twos have the best efficiency of all the pocket pairs because almost every hand has two overcards against it. The tighter your opponent’s 3-betting range is, the more pocket pairs you should call with. 4. You play your set or turn it into a bluff when the board supports it. With that in mind, the focus of this. According to PokerSnowie, you can only call such a raise with JJ or better. Hit the board in a big way. If you called a raise preflop, look to put in a raise against a bet. For example, if you’re holding a pair of jacks and there’s a jack on the board, then you have three-of-a-kind, but more specifically, you have a set. When you hit a monster hand on a flop like or , start piling money in that pot! If you raised preflop, c-bet on the flop. To sum up, here are 4 under-appreciated, but potentially highly profitable starting poker hands all good players know to play. Don’t Slow-Play Preflop, But Don’t Overdo It. How to Play Aces. From early position its completely fine to just fold or you can semi-bluff raise a small percentage of the time, I know low pairs make up a limping range for some guys but I personally don’t include them. Take turns until someone reaches 10,000 points. A “pocket pair” is a pair that a player possesses in his beginning hand in a Hold’em game. In a $1/2 game, playing pocket deuces from the button makes more sense if you and the other limpers have $300 rather. There are only 3 higher pocket pairs so you can expect to have the best hand before the flop most of the time you’re dealt them. The deeper or larger your stack is, the more profitable it becomes to play small pairs due to the high implied odds on hitting a set. . See the flop and then act! Another way to approach pocket tens might be to consider your position first. 3. So on the flop a pair of jacks must be played aggressively to weed out players. You should also be playing your pocket aces very aggressively after the flop as well. Usually small pocket pairs are played for the principal objective of catching a trio, cause what that happens you have the real potential of earning, hopefully from someone with a good hand. The basic idea is simple. The Big Blind check-calls a 66% pot c-bet on K♣ 9♣ 2 ♥. How to play AQ, AJ, and AT – New No Bullshit 6-max 15. Most of the time you should limp in full ring games, though you can vary your play by raising about 20% of the time when no one has opened the pot. You only have like a one in ten chance of hitting a set, which means on average you should try and make 10x your return of your preflop bet to make the strategy of set mining profitable. 3. For pocket 9s, the odds drop from 18. If you look at the odds of flopping a set, you will be looking at a probability of about 8 to 1. Offsuit HandsSmall pocket pairs, 22–66, are great overlimping candidates in most situations. When Q-Q goes up against A-K before the flop, there is a 57 percent chance the Queens hold up. The Importance of Knowing Premium Poker Hands. The rest of the pairs, 2s through 9s, cannot really be counted as premium hands, apart from in heads-up scenarios. 60% chances are that you will see atleast one over pair on the. When you are fortunate enough to get them you need to know what to do with them. If any ace is 52% or better to win, it only makes sense that any pocket pair is even more valuable. Alternatively: 1000 points. There are 1326 total combinations of all hands that can be dealt pre-flop, from Aces to 3-2 offsuit. 3-bet if another player has raised. ). In other words, we're talking primarily about small. Any Ace, King, or Queen on the board threatens to make. Categorizing Pocket Pairs and How to Play Them. When they hit, they make big pot hands (sets, flushes, full houses, etc. Unfortunately, they’re also very vulnerable hands that can get you into a. The best starting hand in Texas Hold’em poker is a pair of aces, colloquially known as pocket rockets. Naturally, the lower down the pocket pair, the less value it has. don’t play low pocket pairs when short-stacked Unless you’re going to be shoving all-in, the value of low pocket pairs drastically decreases as your stack gets smaller. Baby pairs can be powerful hands for cracking big hands. Paired boards are great for the player who is in position. Try this simple strategy for yourself!My free poker cheat sheet:you’re UTG with low pocket pairs at this stage you have a choice. 1%. Most people on button have a wider range, which means a weaker range. The number 1 discussed poker hands in forums, groups, podcasts and all other possible types of communities. Against a Middle Position raise, fold if you are in the Cutoff. 2. Even if they’re suited, the chance of flopping a flush is only 0. ” Yes, you have a high pair in the form of two Aces, but you aren’t faring so well because of your low kicker. Even though they are pretty weak hands, playing them wrong will cost you expected value continuously. You have to play heads-up in the mind-set that any pair is good until proven otherwise. 86. If you play King-Jack suited from the Small Blind when facing a raise, you should always find the 3-bet. A top pair on the flop is a very strong hand that can get a lot of value with a c-bet. Low pocket pairs are fairly straightforward to play, their certainly a hand you want to play in position and not multi-way if possible. Middle position: 22-44: Fold 55-99: Raise to standard for table, figure out how deep you are to see. In the good old' days of poker when edges were slightly bigger and players weren't punished for their mistakes as severely as they are today, the recipe for success with 22-66 was pretty simple - always raise first, always cold call, try to flop a set and get a big payday. To search for a specific topic, use our search page here. Tip #2: Always fast-play your trips or two pairs . Say you’re under the gun with the ace of hearts and ace of diamonds. Raising from early position pre-flop gives your opponents the impression you have a premium hand. This tip works for a lot of strong preflop hands, but it’s particular important with high pocket pairs like tens. One of the most interesting situations in poker is when a player has Ace King (AK) and faces a pocket pair. If u have a set and villain has premium hand turned top pair top kicker youre stacking him. , $240. When you flop a strong hand, as you usually will with aces, you generally want to fast-play in order to build the pot as fast as possible. We will cover: What are Pocket Pairs? Pre-Flop Strategy: Position and Hand Selection Playing Small Pocket Pairs (Deuces through Fives) Playing Medium Pocket Pairs (Sixes through Nines) Playing High Pocket Pairs (Tens through Aces) Adjusting Play Based on Stack Sizes Post-Flop Play with Pocket Pairs. Won plenty of stacks coolering others with straights/flushes. Hey all I’m fairly new to Texas Hold’em and would love your advice on the following. In this hand we are in a classic situation at the micros with a small pocket pair in the blinds. Pocket Fives stand among the top 7% of all starting hands. One focuses on pocket pairs and figuring out how many combos of things like sets, full houses, and quads a player can make. In sum, play the fit or fold for cheap, unless you hit your. When the turn pairs the middle card after you’ve c-bet the flop, you should play a tight double barrel strategy. As relative stack sizes get lower, the value of suited connectors goes down, because their value relies on being able to win a massive pot and. This means that you should try to hit 3 of a kind with your small pocket pairs on the flop. Pocket Pairs •Play big pocket pairs aggressively: raise •Play small pocket pairs carefully –When the pot is big (lots of players) Big cards •Play big cards aggressively: raise •Aces >> kings •Suited >> unsuited. Fast play your sets most of the time by betting/raising. The odds of flopping a set with a pocket pair are 7 to 1, which means that we will hit a set 1 in every 8 flops. Hitting that card offers the potential for a big pot – depending on the board. If this sounds like a challenging situation, just imagine being in this spot from out of position. But you shouldn’t always just check and fold with an underpair. With low pocket pairs, you may often hit a set such as a three-of-a-kind on the flop. Playing small pairs incorrectly is one of the biggest mistakes that less experienced players make.