The remaining 88%, you will be left holding a weak pair, often with two to three overcards on the board, and limited outs to improve. Lock your seat now! The Advanced Solver Ranges for cash games — one of six sets of preflop charts in the Upswing Lab. 60% chances are that you will see atleast one over pair on the. 9%. For that reason it's OK to limp pocket pairs from any position. In this vlog, I discuss how to play mid pocket pairs and why it's very important to understand their SD value post flop. When you’re UTG+1 through Small Blind. I know there is no perfect, guaranteed, positive, all encompassing answer on how to play small to medium pocket pairs, and I have tried various strategies from Jamming pre to limping and other. 2. It’s simply a great hand to have since you have a 12% chance of hitting a set on the flop, and you will have a good chance of stacking your opponent if they have an overpair. Pocket pairs in Texas Hold'em are very useful cards. Unopened Pots. The tighter your opponent’s 3-betting range is, the more pocket pairs you should call with. One last thing to consider: you shouldn't only play small pocket pairs to set mine. Warnings (play with caution) - Over cards on the board, possible straights, flushes, the board is paired. Let’s begin!The best way to play your small pocket pairs in poker is to set mine with them. Middle position: 22-44: Fold 55-99: Raise to standard for table, figure out how deep you are to see. This is a pretty simple explanation though. Never play suited connectors (98s or lower) from Middle Position or worse when you have 30 big blinds or less in your stack. 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. 86. Learn to play these spots correctly, and stop making big e. It should be full of suited connectors and mid to low-value pocket pairs. Maximizing Profit with Pocket Pairs: A Comprehensive Guide. Example: A K , K Q So despite pocket-pairs being low playability hands this is not the same as saying they are difficult to play. It might not seem obvious at first glance, but boards like 9♠ 5♣ 3♠ and T ♥ 8♣ 2♠ can setup some. A: There are 6 combos of each pocket pair, meaning across 13 different card values, there are 78 combos of pocket pairs. Pocket pairs and suited connectors are very similar in a six-max game. 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. Small pocket pairs might look nice as a starting hand, but you should be dumping most of them in early position. 4%. They have very little potential, but if the right cards open on the flop, you can win big. This guide outlines how the. Today's H. low pairs are only useful is the flop brings the. Suppose you are playing $1/$3 no-limit hold'em and before the flop, you raise to $12 in early position with a pair of jacks. The key to this is knowing how people play pocket pairs. If you’re losing with this hand over a lot of. 1. The optimal way of playing small pocket pairs has changed a lot over the years. Poker is a game of skill and strategy, where players aim to make the best hand possible and win the pot. Pocket pairs can also suck out and make full houses. 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. There are 6 different ways to form a. Mostly call to see a cheap flop as the chances of hitting a Set (Three of a Kind) is 10. There are 13 pairs in Hold’em (22 – AA) and for each there are 6 ways to be dealt. Naturally, the lower down the pocket pair, the less value it has. --- Latest Poker News at ---Middle position you can open, but I wouldn't limp or call any bet. 9% (once every 17 hands). 10 out of 49 = 20% - second card - multiplied by. These pocket pairs generally play well against one or two opponents. And so in this article I am going to show you step by step how to play your pocket queens more profitably. Tip #3 – Always c-bet with flopped top pairs. Try not to get too attached to the hand. Pocket queens strategy evaluation. Let’s take a look at one such scenario: Example: The Button raises and the Big Blind calls. The pace of the poker game is often dictated by the first hand you play. Try not to get too attached to the hand. Pocket pairs play decently well out of position compared to other hand types. If this sounds like a challenging situation, just imagine being in this spot from out of position. Any raise and you can be sure there is an over pocket pair or something like an A-10 or A-J staring at you. Against an Early Position raise, fold Queen-Ten suited. An example: We have either JJ or QQ and are in late or mid position. Playing small pocket pairs can be a challenge as they can give you a false sense of a strong hand, while in reality, their value is relatively weak if not. Early position just fold. The other reference for AQ is Rocket Queen, because the A is a rocket and it pairs with a Guns & Roses song. Smaller pairs, also known as pocket sevens or lower, are made up of low-value cards, specifically 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, and 6-6. Middle pocket pairs can be tricky cards to play in tournaments, a lot of players consider pocket jacks to be a top pocket pair, this usually costs them lots of tournaments in the long run. The player to the left of the big blind is called 'under the gun', as they’re the first. The odds of you being dealt a pair of pocket aces (the best starting hand in poker) is 0. If you miss bets with these types of hands. There is maybe a limper or two infront of us, or even a raise, usually to 0,25/0,30 cents. 5. Tip #3: If the board is paired, always fire a c-bet. 1. Keep rolling until you “farkle” (run out of dice and lose your score) or decide to stop and keep your score. g. Medium pocket pairs have some commonality with small pocket pairs, which usually need help to prevail at a showdown. 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. Low pocket pairs are fairly straightforward to play, their certainly a hand you want to play in position and not multi-way if possible. The look on a new players face when he first sees a solid boat get beat by another boat… it's priceless. Forum. Suited connectors are probably among the most complicated hands to play correctly in Texas Hold'em. Betting while having the equity lead (which you will almost always have as the preflop raiser) will ensure that you are building the pot while being the favored one. Good understanding of what are the odds when playing small pocket pairs in various scen. Your opponent has a pair of Aces with a King kicker (A-A-K-J-8). For this reason, you should always raise preflop with Pocket Queens when the action is folded around to you. For this reason, many players will refuse to play pocket pairs below fives. 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. If you play against one random hand, the probability to win is 77% to 85% of the time. post-flop in tournaments is to get to showdown as cheaply as. If it's cash game, you may want to play any pocket pair to hit the set on the flop. In poker, low pocket pairs are considered to be the cards from a p. With a small pocket pair you’re generally not going to have an overpair to the board. Set mining means calling preflop with a small pocket pair with the intention of hitting a set postflop and taking down a big pot. Middle position gives players a little more breathing room to play low pocket pairs. This means that you should try to hit 3 of a kind with your small pocket pairs on the flop. In PLO, the 1/8 times you hit your set, you can still lose enough times that it doesn't justify playing it. These hands are strong enough that they want to value-bet for a small size. Limping should be avoided, no matter how tempting it might be to “set the trap ” or “ set mine ” with it. 7%, or a 56. The 9-high top pair is very vulnerable, which makes betting on the flop preferable because of how much the hand benefits from protection. (this isn't…Right now, your 5-card hand is a pair of Aces with a Jack kicker (A-A-J-8-6). This first rule is something you should immediately apply to your game. Middle position gives players a little more breathing room to play low pocket pairs. In early position it is best to check and see how the others play. You’ll flop a set around 1 in 8 times, but. It is also possible that pocket aces face heads up with another pocket aces. Other variations are Big Queen and Big Chick. Understanding. Slang for pocket fours because the number 4 looks similar to a sail. I normally play Pocket Pairs strong and 3X or even 4X with them but I also have to decide after the flop whether to call, fold or raise depending on position of my opponent. The odds of hitting a set when holding a pocket pair is 7. I would still throw away the small pairs preflop, if someone raises much (again - depending on. The more you play and begin to recognize the strengths of different types of hands, the. So, you’ll want to: Be the first to raise. Open raising with pocket fours can be a good play, depending on your position and the number of players at the table. If any ace is 52% or better to win, it only makes sense that any pocket pair is even more valuable. Set: 10. Pot odds and mathematics of hitting a set. . Pocket Nines. A middle pocket pair isn’t the type of hand to get involved in a large pot. Always keep in mind that big pots are for big hands. 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. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Obviously, you need to be wary in a full ring, deep stacked game, but jacks should win you money in the long run. Therefore, playing high pocket pairs properly pre-flop and eliminating the limpers is crucial to setting up post-flop play. It must be stressed that aces are definitely not a hand to be slowplayed. Pocket Pairs (99-22) Pocket pairs make huge hands when they flop sets. Four of a Kind: 0. 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. 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. 1. Tip #3 – Play top pairs aggressively when in position in single-raised pots. 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. 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. On 8♠ 8♣ 6♦, the optimal strategy is to c-bet around 50% of the time versus the Big Blind. If you have an opponent give you any trouble and you don’t have a set, you can assume you’re losing to everything except a bluff. Cons: Lack of implied odds for set mining. Another cash game poker hand for analysis including bottom pocket pair out of position and the question how to play them both preflop and postflop. Baby pairs, "small pocket pairs" or just "small pairs" refer to the lowest group of pocket-pair starting hands in Texas Hold'em, usually ranging from 22 to 66. Below you will find a list of poker hands in order from highest to lowest to help you get started, as well as the top starting hands for. Alternatively: 600, 750, 1000, or 1,500 points. Some of the biggest pots are created due to a pocket pair's 'hidden' attribute in a. You could justify slow play if the flop is composed of low-value connecting cards. 2. 9 out of 48 = 18% - third card. Get in cheap and hit big to scoop the pot. The low pocket pairs from 44 to 22 are weak hands that you should never play as a raise first in from early positions. If you want to go with a mixed strategy, then you should usually just call with Queen-Ten suited. In general, a pocket pair refers to a hand in which you have two matching cards, more commonly known as a pair. Let’s do some quick math assuming all players start with $100 stacks. In a full-ring game of nine players, it’s rarely a good idea. You should play these pair cautiously from late positions. You should always raise with Pocket Fives preflop when the action folds to you in a 6-max game. Low-pocket pairs are good for making a set and winning a big pot by cracking an overpair; they’re very tough to play when you don’t make a set, and you’ll either have. A pair of ladies performs pretty well against Big Slick but winning against A-K isn’t a certainty. Playing Big Pocket Pairs. But this will require playing your position well pre-flop, and that will also include using whatever knowledge you possess of the playing styles. Here are some tips for using this hand to your advantage when playing at your favorite online. Won plenty of stacks coolering others with straights/flushes. But if the a player squeezed to a very small size, say 2. If no set and no cards over 10 flop. The chance that you're opponent may fold increasing the profit from playing this hand considerably. 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. Sets are often hidden and you can easily stack someone who has top pair or an overpair. 12 hand combinations of each unpaired offsuit hand. Vs Hijack – Call A9-offsuit (folding all lower offsuit Aces). Such plays should be avoided because winning real money — not temporary chips — is your goal as a tournament player. Raising from early position pre-flop gives your opponents the impression you have a premium hand. There are thirteen different pocket pairs (one for each rank) and six different ways of making each. To search for a specific topic, use our search page here. Particularly in Texas Hold’em poker, the position at every hand is key in making a strategic decision. By contrast hands like suited connectors, suited aces, and small pocket pairs can play well against multiple opponents. 7%. In this situation, you’ve run into what’s called “kicker problems. 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. Of course, the different pocket pairs you can earn can be split into different categories: Premium Pocket Pairs; Premium hands, also known as big pocket pairs, are probably the best preflop hands you can be dealt when you play poker as they are quite strong. Note: If you want to win at poker, you need a solid preflop strategy. Hands such as A-K, A-Q, A-J and even K-Q can be profitable hands to play and should be marked high in your poker cheat. Small pocket pairs will flop a set roughly one in eight flops, or approximately 12% of the time. You want to lean toward betting whether you hit the Queen or the Ten top pair. You square up your hole cards. 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. These top 3 pocket pairs are the best possible hands you can be dealt before the flop, and so you should expect to make a hefty amount of money from them throughout your poker-playing career. First of all, if he or she has a small pockt pair, they are tended to limp in the pot and try to catch, and likely to fold to moderate. 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. However in No Limit Holdem there are a number of things that should limit how you play them. Against good, tight-aggressive players, small pocket pairs don’t play well when you’re out of. The larger your pair, the bigger favorite you become. , $240. Here are some tips on how to play middle pocket pairs effectively:Here is the advanced pocket pair strategy you can use to start winning much more. If you’re at a 9-handed table, the best baseline strategy is to fold Pocket Fives from the 3 earliest positions (UTG, UTG+1 and UTG+2). In Limit Holdem low pocket pairs can be played in virtually any position without a 3bet. Medium pocket pairs have some commonality with small pocket pairs, which usually need help to prevail at a showdown. Unfortunately, the odds of being dealt pocket Aces is 220-to-1 so it doesn’t occur nearly as often as we would wish. The Importance of Knowing Premium Poker Hands. Baby pairs can be powerful hands for cracking big hands. Tip #2: Use the rule of 6 and 3 to estimate your odds. UTG is seated to the left of the big blind and is the first player to act. If I hit the flop hard, then it depends on the action of the table, but I usually end up with a big pot. Chapter 1: Understanding the Strength of Small Pairs . If you miss the flop though, then you. 2%. Most of the value in small pocket pairs comes from when they flop a set, which will only happen 11. Pocket Pairs (99-22) Pocket pairs make huge hands when they flop sets. When you are fortunate enough to get them you need to know what to do with them. Pocket pairs are one of the most exciting. Something like 7-6-4 fits nicely with the range of the player who called preflop. Categorizing Pocket Pairs and How to Play Them. Avoid 3-betting against stacks of 60 big blinds or shallower. When the turn pairs the middle card after you’ve c-bet the flop, you should play a tight double barrel strategy. e. In general, set mining hands are low pocket pairs with which you want to see some cheap flops and hope to hit the jackpot. Pocket Jacks shouldn’t be a hand you get very attached to. Pretty simple. When facing a raise you have to think about your opponent. 5 Tips for Playing Pocket Tens Postflop. Stack sizes also dictate the value of your small pair. Strengthen your poker skills and build your bankroll with this video demonstration. When the flop is Ten or Nine-high, you have a strong top pair that is very vulnerable to future cards. US Online Poker. Warning: Do not slow play!This is a list of all poker strategy articles that are marked as starting hands. This includes both single-raised pots and 3-bet pots. With that in mind, the focus of this. No matter what. 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. When you are dealt two cards of the same rank, you are dealt a pocket pair, for example – A♥A♦ and K♦K♣. Regardless of whether you hit top pair with the Ace or Jack, your hand will be very strong, and. 2. This video offers tips on how to play poker pairs of different strengths. There is a lot to learn about how to play. You’ll remember the times you got dealt A-A when playing poker online, but in actual fact you only receive them 0. Note: Do not play another hand without this $7 Postflop Playbook! With such a low price tag,. So despite pocket-pairs being low playability hands this is not the same as saying they are difficult to play. . Small pocket pairs might look nice as a starting hand, but you should be dumping most of them in early position. How to Play Pocket Aces. A pocket pair refers to having two cards of the same rank in your hand, such as two aces or two kings. 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. It reduced to 30-35% if all players stay till the end of. Texas hold ’em pocket card nicknames. Both have their advantages, by raising you’re increasing your equity in the pot, increasing the size and also giving yourself opportunities to cbet the flop. Paired boards are great for the player who is in position. Believe it or not, pocket eights is one of the top 6% of starting hands when it comes to winning possibilities. You should always fold them right away. How to Play Low Pocket Pairs. With 20 big blinds in an unopened pot, all the small pocket pairs can be shoved profitably from the button or small blind. If you hit a set then you should play your hand very aggressively. Pocket pairs can be some of the most profitable hands in poker. The notation 22+ means you should be playing 22 and all other higher-ranking pocket pairs. If you called a raise preflop, look to put in a raise against a bet. 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. This does not apply in Omaha and a lot of Hold'Em players do not understand this. In Limit Holdem low pocket pairs can be played in virtually any position without a 3bet. The ability to go all-in profitably with small pocket pairs when short-stacked makes them straightforward and easy to play. Obviously I used PowerPoint to help. Our guide to will help you here, but first, here’s a rundown of the different poker positions and what they mean. However in No Limit Holdem there are a number of things that should limit how you play them. When you flop two pair, trips, a straight or a flush, you should basically always play your. You lose to AA, KK, QQ, JJ, any 7, any two hearts. The pre-flop hand values normalize and it becomes more of a post-flop chess game. Early position just fold. When you’re in the Big Blind facing a raise, you should never fold King-Jack suited. , Jacks or Queens) but still have significant potential to win if played correctly. A top pair on the flop is a very strong hand that can get a lot of value with a c-bet. While a deceptive second pair, it is still a second pair four times out of ten and a weak pair once out of every ten times, resulting in a 50-50 chance of susceptibility to being outdrawn. We’ll look. Just jam it dude. For a newcomer, some sage advice might. . The comparative looseness or tight playing styles from opponents who re-raise will give you a lot of. If you hit your set you may get their entire stack. However. For example, if a player is dealt two sevens or two kings, they have a pocket pair. In the case of having low pocket pairs, the position becomes even more important and, as usual, several factors need to be considered. Tips for playing pocket aces. We will cover: What are Pocket Pairs? Pre-Flop Strategy:. Therefore, while playing pocket pairs you can win large pots if you play smartly and strategically or lose. * *The solver elects to raise with some of these hands as a semi-bluff raises at some frequency, as I will describe below. Particularly in Texas Hold’em poker, the position at every hand is key in making a strategic decision. Pocket pairs. The one hand that gives beginners more trouble than ace-king or even ace-queen has to be pocket jacks. That’s the goal of this lesson. 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. How do you play a small pocket pair in middle position at: 1) Deep stack tourney with more than 10 blinds 2) Turbo tournaments with less than 10 blinds. If you’re playing at a 9-handed table, you should fold it from the two earliest positions (UTG and UTG+1 in the graphic below). 3% to 11. Set mining refers to the practice of playing a non-premium pocket pair passively preflop in the hopes of flopping three of a kind (a "set"). Pocket Sevens are a very strong starting hand, falling within the top 6-7% of all starting hands. Playable in any position - Stronger opening bets mixed with limps or calls, Play this one fast if you are ahead on the flop. The probability of hitting a set once a Flop is dealt is 18% compared to 12% in regular Hold’em. Each pair has a total of six combinations. These outcomes include: Having enough opponents to supply the correct pot odds. Middle pocket pairs refer to pairs like 8-8, 9-9, or 10-10, and they can be tricky because they are not as strong as high pairs (e. Once you play online higher stakes, stealing with Pocket Pairs becomes necessary to show a profit. Your goal is still to flop a set, but your post-flop play will. 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. Enter the Pot With. In this case, Three Aces will be the strongest set, followed by three Kings, and so on all the way down to three Twos. 20 poker hands odds and poker statistics you should know to improve your game. In this video you will learn how to play small pocket pairs in poker. 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). Pocket pairs are a rather polarizing hand in that you either hit the board pretty hard or you miss completely. Playing Aggressively on Each Street. Pocket aces will almost always beat any other pocket pair. This is because you can expect to win much more when you do hit your set on the flop. Both players have Two Pairs: Kings and Jacks – but Player 1 makes a superior 5-card “high” hands because of the Ace, while Player 2 cannot improve the Queen kicker that is on the community board. 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. Playing and Bluffing with Smaller Pocket Pairs. They are actually very easy to play as 3bets. If u have a set and villain has premium hand turned top pair top kicker youre stacking him. 1% – a drop of 52. I would avoid calling raises over 7BBs to see a flop. Poker Rules; Poker Hands; Poker Games; Poker Terms; Online Poker with Friends;Pocket eights are to be played to do one of two things: trip-up on the flop so that you have a very good set, or steal the pot by managing the hand as if it is, or could be, stronger than it really is. 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. 5-to-1 against, so you’ll obviously miss hitting a set more often than not. 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. When to Raise. 4-bet is someone else 3-bets. Tom’s check is best here even though he has all the pocket pairs up to Aces in his. And combination of hearts and straight cards and possible over pairs. How to Play Heads-Up: Any Pair. Against a Middle Position raise, 3-bet if you are on the Button. But you shouldn’t always just check and fold with an underpair. 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. Pocket eights are a very strong starting hand, falling within the top 6% of all starting hands. For example, A ♠ A ♥, A ♠ A ♦, A ♠ A ♣, A ♥ A ♦, A ♥ A ♣, A ♦ A ♣. Playing Pocket Jacks - Fishhooks or Jokers. There is a lot to learn about how to play. If you want to learn how to play specific starting hands like a pro, read one of the articles below. That’s why calling 3-bets with small pocket pairs is usually a losing play. For flushes on the flop assuming you have suited pocket cards and where you need 3 cards of the same suit you need to muliply the odds of each card being of the suit you need, not add them: 11 out of 50 = 22% for first card - multiplied by. . The chance that you're opponent may fold increasing the profit from playing this hand considerably. . A meta game technique is to raise, typically in position. Certainly, hands like 2-2 to 5-5 should be folded to any LP raise. 75. Poker Basics. But if you do choose to play a pocket pair passively before the flop by calling a raise, be sure to. A pair of Kings is guaranteed to make every poker player’s eyes light up, and your goal should be to get as many chips into the pot pre-flop as possible. In Omaha Hold ’em, a pocket pair would mean you have two same cards in your hand. That being said, most players can’t help themselves and c-bet much. With low pocket pairs, you may often hit a set such as a three-of-a-kind on the flop. Imagine a board such as after you’ve called a 3-bet with from the Button against the Small Blind. Knowing the above information, we can then do some basic math to determine the likelihood of getting certain combinations of hole cards. that betting dilutes the value of your hand and being otherwise. Still, most players get a twinge of excitement when they see a pair of pocket jacks knowing they're holding a top 5 hand. Just remember this type of play works maybe half the time at best. In general, a pocket pair refers to a hand in which you have two matching cards, more commonly known as a pair. One such advantage comes in the form of pocket pairs. Small pocket pairs will flop a set roughly one in eight flops, or approximately 12% of the time. Being the one who initiates the action, or someone who follows, determines how to enter a hand. In Omaha, A♠ K♠ 9♥ 7♥ would count as an example of a double-suited hand. 1. 45% of chances of receiving pocket pairs in Texas Hold’em while. The ABC way to play this hand is to open with a raise. For the purpose of this I'm going to consider small pocket pairs as 22-66, and 22 will play differently than 66 in many situations and I'll try to make notes when I think this will specifically come into play, but generally I feel this is the best way to categorize them. Tip #1: Always bet and barrel for value with top pair (unless the board runs out in a very dicey way) If you have Ace-Queen and the flop comes Ace-high or Queen-high, you have a monster hand worth multiple streets of value. Since flushes and trips increase in value, suited hands and pocket pairs increase in value. 8824% or 1 : 16. You want to make sure that you get the most from the hand, so don't be afraid the build the pot by betting and raising. It’s best not to turn your hand into a bluff and fake. Pre-Flop Probabilities: Hand vs. 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. Medium to small pocket pairs can win you money in 3 ways: You can make a set and win a lot from someone who made a good but worse hand. Paired Hands (Pocket Pairs) Paired Hands are also called pocket pairs. 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. How to Play Strong Pocket Pairs. Pocket pairs are a powerful starting hand in poker, and knowing how to play them effectively can give you a significant advantage at the table. Things to Consider Before You Play Your Pair. Your goal with KK in early position pre-flop is to take control of the pot and gather information about your opponents' hands. That "set flopping potential" is what makes them play good in pots with four or more. Alternatively: 1000 points. When Q-Q goes up against A-K before the flop, there is a 57 percent chance the Queens hold up. For that reason it's OK to limp pocket pairs from any position. In this article, we’ll try to dissect the strategy behind playing pocket pairs in poker. While you do already have a made hand, I recommend keeping the pot relatively small preflop. If you’re playing at a 9-handed table, you should fold it from the two earliest positions (UTG and UTG+1 in the graphic below). How to Play Strong Pocket Pairs 1. Suppose you are playing $1/$3 no-limit hold'em and before the flop, you raise to $12 in early position with a pair of jacks. 77+ means play all pocket pairs including 77 and better, so this range excludes the pocket pairs 22 through 66. When you’re in the Big Blind facing a raise, you should: Vs Lojack or earlier – Fold every time. IMO pocket pairs is a must play in fishy 1/2 stakes.