pocket pairs early position

jobless

just looking for some advice on low to medium playing pocket pairs in early position....
i used to limp with pairs below 7 and called any raises made......should i just dump them in early position or should i raise with them?.....
just looking for advice from others as to what they prefer to do...its a habit i keep falling into which i know i need to change.

cheers

jobless

sorry...didnt put this in right forum...

5starpool

Can anyone help this chap since I have moved this to the correct forum?

sikes

what type of situation are you in? tourney or cash game, short handed or full ring?

generally, in a tourney, try and get into pots cheaply with small pocket pairs where you have good implied odds. you want a few players in the pot for this to happen. dont call raises with them if all you are hoping to do is hit is a set, as you will rarely get the odds required to play it, or the number of people.

luckylucky

jobless wrote:

just looking for some advice on low to medium playing pocket pairs in early position....
i used to limp with pairs below 7 and called any raises made......should i just dump them in early position or should i raise with them?.....
just looking for advice from others as to what they prefer to do...its a habit i keep falling into which i know i need to change.

cheers

In a full-ring game I would normally dump them (though when it gets to 77 and above thats another matter) unless the game happened to be very weak loose which would be rare i might try to limp in that case. In a shorthand game I would usually either raise or fold them, if I had been playing aggressive and recently got caught making a bluff I would be more inclined to fold, if I hadn't been busy in a while I would be inclined to raise, it depends a lot on the table, the opponents, what hands have gone before etc. In general utg with the very low pairs even in shorthand play I would probably fold the majority of the time, with 66 and above I am probably raising the majority of the time.

luckylucky

sikes wrote:

dont call raises with them if all you are hoping to do is hit is a set, as you will rarely get the odds required to play it, or the number of people.

I'll call a raise with a medium pair if I think the player is the type to pay me off if I hit my set, but I would do that in late position and not early position.

El Stuntman

as with most poker questions, the answer is 'it depends'

if it's tournament poker, then it's highly situational - are you shallow/deep stacked? are you on/near the bubble? what's your image?
in general I'd be dumping small (66 and below) PPs in EP when deepstacked in a tournament and shoving with them when very shortstacked (i.e. with 7-8BBs or less in your usual crapshoot tournie) but that's just me

deepstacked cash games, 6-max I'd usually raise 3/4 BBs with small PPs in EP as the implied odds of stacking someone when you hit your set are massive. If I get repopped big PF, then I generally bin them

Full ring, I usually throw them away UTG 1-3 unless the table is incredibly passive

sikes

luckylucky wrote:

I'll call a raise with a medium pair if I think the player is the type to pay me off if I hit my set, but I would do that in late position and not early position.

why not a small pair?

luckylucky

sikes wrote:

why not a small pair?

I might very well do with a small pair too, there are some differences between the two, if there is a possibility of getting more callers the one concern - a small one albeit is you hit your set but lose out to a bigger one, also there is an increased chance with a medium pair especially in a heads- up situation that it alone is good enough to win the hand.

jobless

sikes wrote:

what type of situation are you in? tourney or cash game, short handed or full ring?

generally, in a tourney, try and get into pots cheaply with small pocket pairs where you have good implied odds. you want a few players in the pot for this to happen. dont call raises with them if all you are hoping to do is hit is a set, as you will rarely get the odds required to play it, or the number of people.

Normally tournament full ring games is the situation i find myself in......normally i limp call small raises with them in early position. From your replies i know this is wrong.....
I guess i just find it hard to put pairs down seeing as i may take someones stack if i flop a set....

sikes

luckylucky wrote:

I might very well do with a small pair too, there are some differences between the two, if there is a possibility of getting more callers the one concern - a small one albeit is you hit your set but lose out to a bigger one, also there is an increased chance with a medium pair especially in a heads- up situation that it alone is good enough to win the hand.

sorry, my post was in reply to your reply to my post, where we were talking about hoping to only hit a set!! very confusing!

and i dont think we should worry about set over set, esp considering a raising pairs range dominates 66-99 too so we will get stacked with the mid pair as well as the small pair.

Normally tournament full ring games is the situation i find myself in......normally i limp call small raises with them in early position. From your replies i know this is wrong.....
I guess i just find it hard to put pairs down seeing as i may take someones stack if i flop a set....

Its not wrong to call a raise hoping to hit a set if you have the correct implied odds. there was a hand in the wsop where sam farha called a 1k raise at 25/50, raiser had 10k, farha covered, with 33, knowing he would stack the opponent if he hit his 3. he did and stacked him.

TacT

it really depends depends on the table dynamics and your image. There is no correct answer but here's what I do personally:

Most of the time in a full ring game 9/10 seater, as a very general rule I'm looking to dump anything below 88 in EP and raise in LP/MP depending on the table. I'll limp it too though looking for a good/cheap flop giving me an open ender or a set.

If you get reraised it's not always a clear fold either, most of the biggest pots I've won were with small pairs that caught sets against overpairs to the board, just don't do it all the time or you'll be bleeding chips like there's no tomorrow. Pick your spots/opponents carefully in order for it to be profitable to play them.

Four-Too

If you raise in position 1 with 22, it's a sign of a big hand, people will be afraid. You must raise substantially though, make them think you have better!
That way if someone has over-pair like 77, they will probably fold. If you make a normal raise with low pair, it's likely the callers have AJ,AQ,K10. If the flop has rags only, you are v.likely yo be ahead with any pair - so stick in those chips then. If flop is JJ6, QQ9, this is a good situation for ANY pair, others players unlikely to have hit that sort of flop - excellent bluffing flop too, bet as if you have a Q and if called, at least you have 2pair.

phantom_lord

Four-Too wrote:

If you raise in position 1 with 22, it's a sign of a big hand, people will be afraid. You must raise substantially though, make them think you have better!
That way if someone has over-pair like 77, they will probably fold. If you make a normal raise with low pair, it's likely the callers have AJ,AQ,K10. If the flop has rags only, you are v.likely yo be ahead with any pair - so stick in those chips then. If flop is JJ6, QQ9, this is a good situation for ANY pair, others players unlikely to have hit that sort of flop - excellent bluffing flop too, bet as if you have a Q and if called, at least you have 2pair.

Sorry, but I don't think this is good advice.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

cardshark202

Four-Too wrote:

If you raise in position 1 with 22, it's a sign of a big hand, people will be afraid. You must raise substantially though, make them think you have better!
That way if someone has over-pair like 77, they will probably fold. If you make a normal raise with low pair, it's likely the callers have AJ,AQ,K10. If the flop has rags only, you are v.likely yo be ahead with any pair - so stick in those chips then. If flop is JJ6, QQ9, this is a good situation for ANY pair, others players unlikely to have hit that sort of flop - excellent bluffing flop too, bet as if you have a Q and if called, at least you have 2pair.

I think I've played with you and all 100000 of your students on stars.