TTs and You

This post will be about how I play TTs and where I run into problems.


In EP, open limping :tc: :ts: is bad in most (though not all situations). Thus you raise, I like my 4x BB raise.

You get 2 callers and both blinds drop out. Flop comes out as

:2c: :7s: :9s: Pot (13.5BB)


Now I am first to act and before deciding to bet or check I glance over my two callers. One is 25/5/1 (C1) and the other is 20/9/1 (C2) over 70 hands, which is enough to draw some conclusion about their range.

So what can they have? The only thing I am certain to drop from their range is AA from their hand and maybe AKs, since even the most tight and passive of opponents would re raise those.

C1's Range is: QQ-22,AQs-ATs,KQs,QJs,JTs,T9s,98s,87s,76s,AQo-ATo,KQo,QJo,JTo,T9o,98o,87o,76o,ako
C2's Range is:QQ-22,ATs,KQs,QJs,JTs,T9s,98s,87s,76s,AKo

So the biggest difference between C1 and C2 is one plays Off suite while the other doesn't. With this line up our equity is:

Here:49%
C1:22.5%
C2:28.2%

Since we have the most equity in this pot and there are tons of danger cards to come we should bet. The question is how much? Going all in would cause only the hands that bet us to call. While betting less than half the pot will not charge draws enough. I found most poeple at this level will pay too high of price for any of their draws and I tend to lead out for 11BB.

At this point let us assume that C1 calls and a :qd:

This situation happens often, considering the chances of an over card coming on turn was (16/47) or 34%.

Pot is at 57.5BB and now we have (85BB left and so does our villain)

Considering he called we have to adjust his range for this. At the very least we can remove all pocket pairs below 7, excluding of 22.

After adjusting his range i get:qq-88,22,AsQs,AsJs,AsTs,T9s,98s,76s,AKo
now it is likely that many villains would reraise with jjs-qq and there sets but we can't rule out a slow play. Thus with his range we get a pot equity of 78% for us and a 22% equity for are villain. At this point we have to start deciding how much to bet if we bet pot 57.5bb we will only have 27.5, which leaves us with no credible bet on the river and a commitment. Even betting half pot causes us to be committed, thus we can either check and give up free cards and open us up to easy bluffs, which given to board we have no choice.

River brings a :Kc: since our villain didn't bet we can remove all sets and both qq and jj. Thus it leaves the villain with a range of
AsQs,AsJs,AsTs,KsQs,QsJs,T9s,98s,78s,76s,AKo, which gives us an equity of 42%.

But taking this analysis further we know that he will not call us with anything that doesn't hit at least 9,q,k. Against that range we have equity of 62.5%, thus we have to value bet thus a value bet of 20BB will give us the ability to fold if they reraise.


Now what is important to realize this is what needs to be done against every single hand every time. The more you practice this the more likely you can do it quickly enough in a game mode.

Im sure I made a few mistakes even in this analysis that took me a while to put together. But, it is important that this analysis doesn't include enough discussion on bluffs and our opponents were very passive, where in the live world many would make bluffs at you. This is one reason why i love winning with pocket TTs on the flop.

I like giving busted draws a chance to bluff the river at least some % of the time.

I think this spot feels awkward because you're value betting, but will lose a good size pot often enough to hurt but need to push a bit here because you have an edge to push.

ummm bet the turn.
A9,Q9,98,9T,J9,flushes and gut shots will call you.

Bet turn.. consider gaybetting the river or checking to induce a bluff from draws and get calls from 9x type hands.