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14/01/2012 PKR Making the most from your big pocket pairs

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Making the most from our big pocket pairs

Making he mo of o mon e hand . B Ale Ma in on Wedne da 17 J n 2009 06:00 2Recommend head p a PKR Li e

Ever one's looking for the big pocket pairs, but make sure ou know how to pla them down the streets When pla ing o big pocke pai in ca h game , o a eg ho ld gene all e ol e a o nd ge ing a m ch al e a po ible f om o holding. All big pocke pai ho ld be opened p in an po i ion. Limping i h he in en ion of e ai ing i no gene all iable in he mode n game. Gene all a ai e in he egion of he i e of he po ill be ideal, e ing o na o he field if he e a e al ead limpe . Yo ho ld be looking o ge i all-in p eflop i h pocke Q een , King and
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14/01/2012 PKR Making the most from your big pocket pairs

Aces against the majority of opponents. Pocket Jacks and Tens will also often have to be played very aggressively preflop in mid-stakes games. If there has already been a raise before you then your optimal play will be governed by a combination of your position, your table image, your opponent's playing style and your cards.
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You are under the gun and have a solid-tight image. You open with Aces and the player UTG+2 makes a huge bet. Action returns to you. The villain it turns out is a total nit. It should be very apparent that he has a huge hand and you shouldn t get tricky here. Instead going all-in is probably the best move. Don t just flat-call as you run the risk of various flops that will scare your opponent out of getting his stack in preflop.
E ample 2

You are in middle position on an aggressive table. A tight UTG player opens. Your read is that he is a good tight-aggressive player who views you as pretty tight. You have Q-Q. Here you have a couple of options but the best is probably to call. If you three-bet (reraise) you are letting him fold hands that you have crushed. Because your image player your opponents will play more close to perfect if they have polarised your range correctly. This means that you will have a very strong, disguised holding post-flop
E ample 3

You are on the button and get dealt K-K. Your image is that of a good LAG. You isolate a fish and get three-bet by a good LAG from the big blind. Calling is almost always infinitely more profitable than four-betting as four-betting lets the villain get away cheaply preflop. By calling you disguise your range and give the villain initiative out of position.

Pla ing big pairs on the flop

Your post-flop strategy should be influenced by how you have played preflop. You should have a rough idea of your opponents range and be evaluating how to get value from your hand. Big pocket pairs unimproved should generally be
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14/01/2012 PKR Making the most from your big pocket pairs

played strongly on the flop. They decrease significantly in strength on connected boards and are hazardous to play out of position on some flops. Flops like 4-5-6 are obviously going to connect with loose players opposed to tight players. Let's have a look at your options.

Folding
Sometimes you will have a big pocket pair and it will be clear that you are crushed. If an incredibly tight player three-bets you then fires a full pot bet on a K-7-4 board, Q-Q is no good. On boards where your hand strength is unclear and your opponents range is almost certainly super strong folding is fine.

Con in a ion be ing

If you had the lead preflop, you should continuation bet an awful lot of flops out of position. Say you raised pre-flop with Q-Q and see a A-x-x flop. A continuation bet here is fine and standard. Check-calling and check-folding are also fine but continuation betting a reasonably strong holding will be the best play.

Checking back
If you are in position, you can check back more hands on the flop, as you are in position and will get to control action on later streets. Let s imagine you open A-A on the button and a bad regular calls in the blinds. The flop comes 2-2-8 or J-6-3 or Q-9-5. On these boards you want to check to let opponents try and bluff you. Imagine your opponent has K-Q on the 2-2-8 board, he will likely check-fold. Now what happens when you check back and a Queen drops? The trick is to understand your hand strength and the likelihood of an opponent making a better hand when you let one more roll off. So long as you have good post-flop skills, free cards can make you more money.

Facing a ai e
Say you continuation-bet Q-Q on a 5h-6s-8s board with and face a raise this is player-dependant situation too. If the opponent is fairly tight, I d have no problem folding Q-Q to his raise. If the guy was a LAG, we should have no problem getting the money in here. If the player was a TAG it would be better to call and then get the money in on a non-flush/Ace turn.
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Do n the streets
Most major decisions with big pocket pairs will be made on the flop in threebet pots. In standard pots your thought process on the turn and river should be value, value, value. Betting will almost always be best move when you likely have the best hand. Let's say you have A-K on an Ad-10s-8s board and continuation bet in position. What should you do if the turn comes 8h, 2s or Qh? The answer is bet, bet, bet! Generally your opponents will play very predictably. Betting for value should be your mantra. If you get check-raised then tackle that hurdle when you come to it. If you are playing super aggressive or tricky opponents and the board is pretty yucky, then you can start to check back the turn for pot control, in an effort to get to showdown cheaper. Out of position we should be more inclined to check in thin/marginal spots unless our image is insane or our opponent is a fish. For example if you have A-A on a K-10-9 board, on the Eight turn you might check if your image was straightforward but should bet if you are viewed poorly or your opponent is a fish. Against unthinking opponents and most weak regulars, a check-raise on the turn means a big hand.

On the ri er
On the river it should be pretty clear if you have the best hand or not just don t forget the value. If you are in position and have seen a board of Q-5-2-97 against a tight aggressive player, his most likely holding is a decent Queen. In this situation you should value-bet the river. Keep you bet sizes in line with what you think your opponent will be able to call with. Say you check back a flop of K-4-3 with Q-Q. Your image is loose-aggressive and the pot is $40. The turn is a Ten and you bet $25 and the river is a Seven. Depending on your table image and the dynamics of the table you might value-bet this. Your opponent has to be a thinking player for you to bet here not some robot who sees A-T on a King-high board versus a bet and automatically folds otherwise you will value-cut yourself more often than value-bet. 2Recommend Share

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