Playing Pocket Jacks. Help!!

I need help in a bad way with this hand. This hand has single handedly lost me about $100 bucks (I know that's small change to you whales).

I play it TAGGy and it still seems to always get me busted. I'm almost to a point where I'm just gonna auto fold it.

Most situations I encounter are when I get two pair with it. Someone always seems to have the set on me. And of course I can never hit the set of full boat. And the onetime I did hit the boat. I got beat by quads.

In all, I know it's probably just a bad streak, but this is ridiculous.

I usually play it like a good pair (QQ+) before the flop with a healthy raise or maybe a reraise to trim the field. After the flop I'll treat it more like a lower pair, where if the board looks scary or the action is too intense, I'm more inclined to let it go.

Post some specific hands?

Originally Posted by Fnord

Post some specific hands?

Well I don't have any specific hands to post. All I can say is that any situation I could run into, I have. Straight and flush draws hitting, Higher pairs hitting, killed by sets, quads, and boats.

And I do pretty much what is the norm. I Raise preflop and see what the flop brings. It just seems like I get those flops that look relatively harmless. If an Ace or King falls I slow the roll and get out of dodge. It's the low/mid pocket pairs that are really killing me. And the flush/straight chasers too.

I guess J/J is just my bad luck hand.

With JJ I raise moderately PF (to hopefully weed out smaller PP, though this rarely happens ), and look at the flop. I'll overbet the pot if there are no overs, and test the waters if there are.

I treat JJ like AA-KK-QQ preflop, and treat it like a mucking hand postflop when the flop comes AKQ.

Whenever i get pocket jacks i raise 5-7 times the big blind sometimes go all in when in position and have a table of callers. You have to play it more cautiously it seems like then any other pp. If the board comes 379 rainbow and you have someone betting into you there are 4 things to consider: 1. how much was called preflop, maybe indicating he has a higher pp. 2. he hit the set and trys to get full potential, if he makes around a half pot sized bet hes got you beat. 3. Is he trying to bluff the pot, or 4. maybe he hit the 9 and thinks you have just high cards. Rarely will a flop like this come and someone has a straight draw, but hey there are maniacs. I know there could be one million different ways a unfriendly flop could occur, but i hope this helps. Another thing, dont get to attached to pocket Jacks i always think of them as a middle pair and if i dont get a friendly flop then out they go unless checked. Remember your that much stronger if you can fold them then the guy who cant who will most likely get busted cause of it.

Originally Posted by Mony B

Whenever i get pocket jacks i raise 5-7 times the big blind sometimes go all in ...... You have to play it more cautiously it seems like then any other pp.

This is cautious?

Originally Posted by Les_'worm'

Originally Posted by Mony B

Whenever i get pocket jacks i raise 5-7 times the big blind sometimes go all in ...... You have to play it more cautiously it seems like then any other pp.

This is cautious?

I was going to say the same thing. I'm a tight pre-flop player, but I usually treat pocket jacks like 10's/9's/8's. Or really any medium pocket pair. If I'm an average stack, I'll call 2-3 BB and hope to hit a jack. There is a problem with straight draws if the flop does stay 10 and below, and also smaller pocket pairs hitting their sets, in my experience. JJ rarely holds up unless the hand improves at some juncture, and you just need to keep that in mind.

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well in a way its being cautious, since your prob a head preflop unless there was a big raise in front of you even then i would have to have a raise and a reraise for me to consider folding preflop, i would usually push all in when it came to me since only three higher pocket pairs are out there. With JJ i would love to get it down to one other person not to mention i would love to take the pot down right there. I might get some negitive feedback for this but when i have a pocket pair i love to push as much as i can preflop, most of the time i will bust Ak-A4, since most people belive that Ax is a all in hand, but its not only correct for you to push it in but say you dont get any callers and just take the blinds, its just one bad beat that cant happen and its also gives you a mentallity that you played correctly since you made a small profit. So i guess in away its being cautious through aggressiveness.

I ALMOST never move in w/ JJ, especially early in a tourney or in a cash game. I NEVER vary the size of my raise w/ JJ. By raising, what was it, 5-7 the BB your almost asking not to get action or get trapped. If you don't want action with JJ or TT then just fold. Your EV for the hand will probably be better. Also, a big raise is a definate tell. People make large raises with hands they want to protect. A good player can read this and take the pot away from you with a weaker hand. A good rule of thumb is to make a standard (your typical) preflop raise and see what develops. If you get action in more than one spot and an over flops, then it become difficult to play. JJ is a very read dependant hand. You have to be able to make an effective guess as to what your opponent might hold. Let's say you raise w/ your JJ from late position and get one caller in the blinds. If the flop comes AK4 it doesn't neccesarily mean that your opponent holds one of those cards--unless he's the sort of player who will only call with an A or better, your hand could very well be good. If it's checked to you, I would tap the pot, continue to represent strength. This is a pretty straightforward and effective was to play JJ. The most important thing is to be weary of too much action. If you get four way action with JJ you should proceed with caution. The nice thing about JJ is that it's a very decpetive hand--especially if you flop a set. I would suggest playing it like any other hand. If you loose, you loose, but don't fear JJ.

Hope this helps,