A few HH's, please don't laugh

[LawDude]

Well the obvious leak I'm seeing here right now is your 3bet.

If you know you're beat with JJ, then fold. But honestly it would be more profitable for you to just call the $.16. If the person wants to get it all in preflop you're probably beat (depending on reads), but if you just call in these type situations and flop your set, you can easily stack them.

Sorry, what, I'm playing JJ for set value now? I don't see why I shouldn't be 3-betting with JJ here.

My question isn't whether I "know" I'm beat, but whether I'm using the correct thinking in guessing an opponents range.

JJ is an interesting hand, because it has value in 2 ways:

1. It often ends up the best hand heads-up or in a short-handed pot.

AND

2. One out of 8 times it flops a set.

What you have to understand is that when someone has an overpair, (1) is no longer true. But (2) still is.

So, ideally, what you would want to do is (a) get as much of your opponent's chips in as possible when your opponent is behind you pre-flop, (b) see the flop while not paying an exhorbitant amount of money when you are behind pre-flop but your opponent has a deep enough stack to pay you off at 7 1/2 to 1 odds if you hit a set of jacks, and (c) fold when you are behind and won't be paid off at 7 1/2 to 1.

Obviously, since you don't know Villain's hole cards, you can't do this. But what the ranges do is tell you whether you are likely to be ahead or behind, and therefore whether you should be playing to just get the chips into the pot, whether you should be playing to hit your set and get paid off, or whether you should be folding because your set isn't going to pay you off enough.