Pocket Pairs

I got a question about pps, since I get the impression people here play them differently than I tend to do.

Generally AA-JJ will be a preflop raise for me, TT is kind of a toss-up, and 99-22 I generally call with (preferably from later position). Only with 99-77 will I consider calling a small raise, the others I will throw away when facing a preflop raise. And for 99-22, if I don't get a set on the flop I'll toss them.

But I'm thinking there might be different ways to play them that I'm not aware of. Because I've been seeing posts where people call bigger raises with them, or raise preflop etc. So I'm a bit confused.

I could think of the following scenario: I raise 4BB with 55. I get one caller. Flop is 248. Now my opp will probably have overcards to the flop, so another 1/2-3/4 pot raise might be a good idea. Is that good play or a long shot and as such bad?

Any input welcome.

I can only speak for myself, so take this with a grain of salt. I play all PP lower than 99 for set value, I nearly always want to see a flop with them, especially after a raise. If you hit against someone with an overpair, you are nearly guaranteed to get paid big time. My secondmost profitable hand this month is 22. Raising with lower PPs is mostly necessary at higher stakes, for deception purposes, but below NL50 I would not recommend it.

Originally Posted by jackvance

Only with 99-77 will I consider calling a small raise, the others I will throw away when facing a preflop raise. And for 99-22, if I don't get a set on the flop I'll toss them.

This is really bad. 60% of my profit comes from calling raises with low pps. People have awful trouble getting away from Aces and TPTK so you can easily take stacks when you hit your set against them. It's all to do with a concept called implied odds (do a search in here). Generally, you should call a raise with a low pp if both you and the raiser have stacks which are bigger then 10 times the size of the raise you are calling.

This seems to be a major leak of mine then. Thx for the heads-up guys.

So to conclude:
When you are holding a pp, call raises, especially so if there are multiple people in the pot, because your donation becomes relatively smaller, and there's a bigger chance someone will pay you off when you hit, because someone is bound to hit something and pay up.

I have to say though, I feel a bit awkward in consistently calling, say, 4BB raises with a low pp against one opp, because I'm only expecting to hit 1/9 times, and there is no real guarantee that my opp will pay up in full; If I do hit, he might not, and I don't get paid. Alternatively, he might hit something but be afraid of other options on the board and not pay up because of that either. I'll have to think about this some more.


Come to think of it.. the first time I played online, my first ring game ever, I tripled up to $30 after about 5 minutes when I called a raise with a low pp and got into a battle between two guys fighting over their TPs. Weird how I got off this line of thought afterwards..

since you don't buy in for the full amount, you aren't going to get as much value out of calling preflop and hitting a set.

Well, in my defense, maybe it's good I don't buy in full when I still have major leaks like this lol. Plus at unibet it's actually a rare occurrence to see more than 2 people with stacks higher than me (probably because of my table selection criteria).

But I'm definately gonna incorporate this into my game.. probably a bit more "safe" ie throw them away unless there's already a caller to a raise before it gets to me, etc.

Buyin for full and see 90+% of flops with any pair.

Renton OTM.

Also. You call a regular-sized raise from MP with 77. Flop comes 248. Pre-flop raiser checks. What are you going to do? I'll be betting here, 3/4 pot or so maybe, because this dude either has a higher PP (unlikely) or two court cards (much more likely). If he's missed the flop altogether, you are a strong favourite.

Personally, I don't like this play at the lower stakes, biondino. Usually there are 3+ players to any flop, who won't fold overcards and draw out on you close to 80% of the time. Below NL50 I play those lower pockets for the set only. It's different headsup though, but as said, there rarely is any HU play at NL10.

Point taken - I should have clarified that I'd only play like I did above against one player, the pre-flop raiser, and I mostly play at £/$25. But bear in mind I'm fine with them calling with overs as I'm a strong favourite at this point if that's indeed what they do have.