Greetings,
I'm writing because I need a little bit of strategy advice. I was watching a HokieGreg video earlier this morning and he mentioned something about needing to get 15 to 20:1 on his money to call this raise preflop. If I'm taking his words out of context, please forgive me (as my confusion is why I'm posting). Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how to play small and middling pocket pairs in the most optimal fashion against an unknown opponent.
Against most villains I raise any pocket pair from the SB. I am inclined to limp small pairs like 22-44 from the BB or call a reasonable raise up to 3x the BB if the effective stack sizes aren't too small. In the later stages of the game, like 50/100 this is an easy all-in jam. However, the situation that confuses me the most is facing a reraise in the SB with larger stacks. I just muck my small pocket pair if the reraise is very large. However, if the pair is large enough I'd just jam it all in. Up until watching the vid this morning, I thought the pair had to be like 88's or greater (at least that was my cut off).
Let me try to be a little more specific. Assuming the blinds are 10/20 and each opponent has full stacks, how do you play middle pairs to a reraise. Assume you raised 66 or 77 from the SB, and were reraised to 200. Would you jam it? If not, how high would the pocket pair have to be. I'm thinking you couldn't smooth call this hand as the implied odds are insufficient, and hence you would raise all-in or fold this hand. I'm thinking it's a jam or fold hand, but I could be wrong. Also, lets examine 55,66, and 88. What is your cut off for folding this to a reraise?
Lastly, does anybody know of any good vids, articles, or resources for helping me play these small and middling hands in the early part of the game when the stacks are generally large?
Thank you,
Jeffrey
I usually jam TT+ and fold the rest, you're just not getting the implieds odds to call on set-value.
Against some opponents I flat 88 and 99, but only if I can outplay them postflop, ie. I'm not calling on set-value. This usually happens against weak and predictable opponents where I can take down the pot post-flop even without hitting a set or an overpair. However, I need some good reads to do that.
Greetings Jack,
Thanks for sharing your perspective on this aspect of heads-up poker. Yeah, I agree with your comment re: not getting implied odds to call the 3-bet with the small or even most middling pairs based on what I've learned in several vids. I think I need to tighten up my standards when effective stacks are large. At the very least, I'm going to move my default cut off from 88's to 99's.
Of course, it's villain dependent to some extent. I like to check my opponents hand histories and see what kind of hands they're pushing all in with. I've noticed a lot of opponents at the LL overvalue AK-AT (and Axs) and devalue most pairs. So, finding out what they push with preflop can be a very profitable piece of info. Of course, another consideration is not pushing small edges against weaker opponents who can be expolited more profitably post flop. Just having a small edge by going all-in preflop is not enough as you have to factor in your entry fee and the opportunity costs of forfeiting post-flop advantages.
Thanks for the feedback,
Jeffrey
also dependes on villain's 3bet%.I don't give up 22 vs a light 3bettor,I reshove most of the time.Most of his range simply can't put it in pre and the idea is to win 250chips uncontested.The reason because u can do this with pp rather than a random hand is that u still got equity vs part of his calling range (AQ\AK+lower pp;if he folds even this kind of hands,better for us)and making this help also to lower his 3bet%;I strongly prefer this spot rather than open and get flatted;if I want to play safely,I just limp