how to play pocket pairs. Of course, the different pocket pairs you can earn can be split into different categories: Premium Pocket Pairs; Premium hands, also known as big pocket pairs, are probably the best preflop hands you can be dealt when you play poker as they are quite strong. how to play pocket pairs

 
 Of course, the different pocket pairs you can earn can be split into different categories: Premium Pocket Pairs; Premium hands, also known as big pocket pairs, are probably the best preflop hands you can be dealt when you play poker as they are quite stronghow to play pocket pairs  Poker News

If your table is very passive or the rake is. 2%. Middle pocket pairs refer to pairs like 8-8, 9-9, or 10-10, and they can be tricky because they are not as strong as high pairs (e. They are both drawing hands that should be played aggressively before the flop. 20 poker hands odds and poker statistics you should know to improve your game. The Odds of Being Dealt Pocket Pairs. In other words it's a little bit like set-mining apart from the fact that we have a chunk of fold-equity preflop too. Key Points: Fold in early position to a raise; call big blind and late position. Each one is remarkably simple but effective. When you have a chance to bet, you can increase the size of the pot to your desire. JJ is such a trouble hand that most beginners actually even hate having it dealt to them. Flop c-betting range: Sets, two pairs, most top pairs, 2 nd pairs, 3 rd pairs, low pocket pairs, open-enders, all gut-shots, runner-runner flush draws. So in this article I am going to break it all down for you step by step. See moreThere are many ways to play pocket pairs in No-Limit Hold’em, but only a few are correct, and knowing the difference between the right way and the wrong way is going to save you money. Play pocket pairs aggressively . A small pair is going to flop a set or better about 12% of the time, which means it will also miss the flop the other 88% of the time. How to Play Low Pocket Pairs in Middle Position. Play strong hands in an early poker position , good hands in mid-position and a few more hands in late position. For example, If there are two people limping in from early position and you find yourself sitting in hijack with 33, limping along is simply the best way to play the hand if you have a fairly deep stack, which we’ll take as a given for the purposes of this guide. 1 out of 13 times, your second card will provide you with the most powerful preflop starting hand in Hold’em! Peeling the second card, you see the emergence of a diagonal outline. In a full-ring game of nine players, it’s rarely a good idea. The effective size of your stack is one of the biggest considerations when deciding how to play your pocket pair. Alternatively: 1000 points. In this case, Three Aces will be the strongest set, followed by three Kings, and so on all the way down to three Twos. They are two cards of the same rank; for example, A♥ A♦ and K♦ K♣. Set Mining “Set mining” is when you call with a (usually small) pocket pair with the sole intention of flopping the set. In this article, we’re going to look at some common scenarios to help you play pocket tens more effectively. The rest of the pairs, 2s through 9s, cannot really be counted as premium hands, apart from in heads-up scenarios. Combinations. For that reason it's OK to limp pocket pairs from any position. Factor in that you can still lose even with a set. Oct 16, 2014. Have an overpair to the board (your pocket pair is better than all the cards on the flop). In almost all circumstances getting all-in pre. You want to build the pot, but you shouldn’t bet too big and step outside of your range. If you hit a set then you should play your hand very aggressively. , $240. I like to raise the low PP's (22-55) in EP some 60-70% of the time and play them just as I would any big pair. At a six-handed table, however, the odds another player has a higher pocket pair are reduced to 16. Pocket pairs in Texas Hold'em are very useful cards. You only have like a one in ten chance of hitting a set, which means on average you should try and make 10x your return of your preflop bet to make the strategy of set mining profitable. Medium pocket pairs have some commonality with small pocket pairs, which usually need help to prevail at a showdown. 1. There are only 3 higher pocket pairs so you can expect to have the best hand before the flop most of the time you’re dealt them. e. So, the chance of being dealt a pocket pair is 78/1326 = 5. You can raise in late position, but make your raises big. However, as always, poker is a complex game with exceptions to general rules. If this sounds like a challenging situation, just imagine being in this spot from out of position. . 4 hand combinations of each suited hand. post-flop in tournaments is to get to showdown as cheaply as. When the Button Raises on the Flop1. This applies to almost all hands you play, but especially to pocket pairs due to the fact that they don’t offer much flexibility on the flop, turn or river versus other hands. 6 possible combinations of each pocket pair. engjosh88 • 11 yr. You could justify slow play if the flop is composed of low-value connecting cards. Set: 10. The thing about middle pocket pairs, is after the. Sets or Better: Pocket Jacks hit sets or better approximately 12% of the time. Ace-king is almost 50% to win against pairs Q-Q and below and 30% to win against pocket Kings. Key Points: Fold in early position to a raise; call big blind and late position. The number 1 discussed poker hands in forums, groups, podcasts and all other possible types of communities. Strengthen your poker skills and build your bankroll with this video demonstration. One major leak I see people make is calling big raises with baby pairs against short stacked players. The ability to go all-in profitably with small pocket pairs when short-stacked makes them straightforward and easy to play. Tip #1: Always bet and barrel for value with top pair (unless the board runs out in a very dicey way) If you have Ace-Queen and the flop comes Ace-high or Queen-high, you have a monster hand worth multiple streets of value. While it seems like you get dealt pairs a lot, the actual odds of receiving any pocket pair is just 5. How to Play Pocket Jacks Preflop. The tighter your opponent’s 3-betting range is, the more pocket pairs you should call with. Enter the Pot With. Say you’re under the gun with the ace of hearts and ace of diamonds. The best, in this case, is when you flop your low pocket pair set. Sets are often hidden and you can easily stack someone who has top pair or an overpair. In this situation, you’ve run into what’s called “kicker problems. A small pocket pair would be considered as 22’s to 77’s. Naturally, the lower down the pocket pair, the less value it has. It’s one of the best feelings in the game of Texas. As soon as there are more than three opponents in the pot, middle pocket pairs are less likely to hold up without improvement. , or one in three. Tip #1: If you have an underpair to the flop, check back most of the time. However, when you are the player making the last big bet you have the added benefit of fold-equity. Pocker Pairs are the most profitable hands to play in the game of poker. That’s not to say medium pocket pairs aren’t valuable. Want to master Microsoft Excel and take your work-from-home job prospects to the next level? Jump-start your career with our Premium A-to. If your opponent is holding something like a pair of 4s, eight-seven or six-five, they could squeeze. In this hand we are in a classic situation at the micros with a small pocket pair in the blinds. By Matthew Cluff. “Pocket queens” will almost always help a player in cash games or online poker tournaments so long as no aces or kings appear as community cards. Note: Do not play another hand without this $7 Postflop Playbook! With such a low price tag,. It depends on your table though. For this reason, you should always raise with this hand preflop when the action folds to you, regardless of your position. Forum. 5-to-1 against, so you’ll obviously miss hitting a set more often than not. A pair of Kings is guaranteed to make every poker player’s eyes light up, and your goal should be to get as many chips into the pot pre-flop as possible. There are 13 pairs in Hold’em (22 – AA) and for each there are 6 ways to be dealt. However. When you have a strong hand in poker, you should almost always lean towards fast-playing to build the pot ASAP. Early position just fold. Effective stack size. With 20 big blinds in an unopened pot, all the small pocket pairs can be shoved profitably from the button or small blind. Pocket queens should be one of your absolute biggest winnings hands. Cons: Lack of implied odds for set mining. And combination of hearts and straight cards and possible over pairs. Just jam it dude. When blockers are in play, we can use two simple rules to count up specific combos. Your goal is still to flop a set, but your post-flop play will. But if you do choose to play a pocket pair passively before the flop by calling a raise, be sure to. The remaining 88%, you will be left holding a weak pair, often with two to three overcards on the board, and limited outs to improve. The whole concept of PLO preflop hand selection and hand strength is a bit more complicated than in holdem. Pocket Kings and Queens are great starting hands but playing them in a wrong way can quickly get you in trouble. To isolate the hand against one or a few opponent/s. Being dealt pocket QQs is kind of a mixed blessing. This video offers tips on how to play poker pairs of different strengths. Unfortunately, they’re also very vulnerable hands that can get you into a. The problem with this is you’re out of position for the entire hand. Get dealt a hand like 5-5? If there are a few callers, making a call yourself might be worth a call as well. Flopping a set with your small pocket pair is always an encouraging. Imagine a board such as after you’ve called a 3-bet with from the Button against the Small Blind. So, you’ll want to: Be the first to raise. 340. You’ll remember the times you got dealt A-A when playing poker online, but in actual fact you only receive them 0. You square up your hole cards. You cannot call large three-bets pre-flop if you want to have a positive expectation. 9% (once every 17 hands). When the action folds to you and you have Ace-Ten offsuit, you should almost always raise. 3 tips for playing this small pair when you are the preflop caller. A meta game technique is to raise, typically in position. A “pocket pair” is a pair that a player possesses in his beginning hand in a Hold’em game. You can raise in late position, but make your raises big. Give everyone 1 additional turn to try and beat the high score. Pocket pairs can also suck out and make full houses. Low-pocket pairs are good for making a set and winning a big pot by cracking an overpair; they’re very tough to play when you don’t make a set, and you’ll either have. Try not to get too attached to the hand. Any two cards of the same suit make a suited poker hand. This does not apply in Omaha and a lot of Hold'Em players do not understand this. In Omaha, A♠ K♠ 9♥ 7♥ would count as an example of a double-suited hand. Below you will find a list of poker hands in order from highest to lowest to help you get started, as well as the top starting hands for. But if the a player squeezed to a very small size, say 2. It is important to be able to properly play the flop when you do not connect. About 36% of the time pocket jacks will hold up as an over pair, while 41% of the time there will be overcards that beat jacks with top pair. Pocket jacks is a strong hand in Texas Hold’em. If you’re seated anywhere between the Hijack and the Small Blind, go. How to Play Strong Pocket Pairs 1. Aggressively playing low pairs out of position requires you to have an excellent reading of your opponents and preferably a tight reputation. It depends on the type of the game, your position and stack. There are 13 pocket pairs in Texas Holdem poker. Against five players with hands from the example, you’ll win 48% of the time. . If your opponent has two pair or something along those lines, it’s going to be hard for him to fold. Low pocket pairs are fairly straightforward to play, their certainly a hand you want to play in position and not multi-way if possible. 9%. Aces with weak kickers are back in play, as are medium pocket pairs. 75. This guide outlines how the. It sucks when your pocket pair misses the flop, especially when you’re looking at three overcards. 7%, or a 56. Limping should be avoided at all costs, no matter how tempting it might be to “set the trap” or “set mine. Medium to small pocket pairs can win you money in 3 ways: You can make a set and win a lot from someone who made a good but worse hand. With this in mind, the small pocket pairs will give you a good feel of how the game is going to progress without you rushing into mistakes that will cost you the pot. Your opponent should bet very large here, like 75% of the pot. that betting dilutes the value of your hand and being otherwise. Example: A K , K Q So despite pocket-pairs being low playability hands this is not the same as saying they are difficult to play. 88%, or odds of 1 : 16. Despite being attractive preflop, small pocket pairs are notorious for causing problems postflop, forcing even the experienced players in to making unprofitable decisions. Sep 4, 2020. Remember that pocket Aces are not indestructible. How do you define pocket pairs? There is a 0. Still, most players get a twinge of excitement when they see a pair of pocket jacks knowing they're holding a top 5 hand. With low pocket pairs, you may often hit a set such as a three-of-a-kind on the flop. Most of the time you should limp in full ring games, though you can vary your play by raising about 20% of the time when no one has opened the pot. Pocket Twos have the best efficiency of all the pocket pairs because almost every hand has two overcards against it. The problem is that you’re risking a lot of money upfront, only to concede it a large majority of time postflop. If we miss our set, we check/fold. Let’s run through every common preflop spot one by one. Tip #1: Play more suited hands and pocket pairs (and play them more aggressively) This is basically the opposite of tip #1. Related Reading: How to Play Small Pocket Pairs in 6-Max Hold'em; SnG ABCs: Small Pocket Pairs; Top-Pair Hands. Since I know many of you have asked me about playing mid pocket pairs in cash game, especially from out of position, I decided to make this quick Hand of the. Hands like suited connectors and all pocket pairs rise in value. Players will want to isolate and. A pocket pair is always a good starting point in poker. 1. If u have a set and villain has premium hand turned top pair top kicker youre stacking him. 5% of the time (1/8) , which means you’ll need at least 7:1 pot-odds to call opening raises. If you play against one random hand, the probability to win is 77% to 85% of the time. If you miss the flop though, then you small pocket pair should be folded. When you hit a monster hand on a flop like or , start piling money in that pot! If you raised preflop, c-bet on the flop. Pocket pairs can be some of the most profitable hands in poker. Trips and two pair are bread-and-butter value-betting hands. How to Play Pocket Pairs | A Winner’s Guide "Plays" Strategies by Team RedSharkPoker 3 years ago 0 1048 Who doesn’t love pocket pairs in poker! Seeing two cards of the same value brings a big smile to your. Suppose you are playing $1/$3 no-limit hold'em and before the flop, you raise to $12 in early position with a pair of jacks. ), whereas top-pair hands go down in. However, when you are the player making the last big bet you have the added benefit of fold-equity. 45% of chances of receiving pocket pairs in Texas Hold’em while. 2. Warnings (play with caution) - Over cards on the board, possible straights, flushes, the board is paired. 2. How to Play Small Pocket Pairs. For example, A ♠ A ♥, A ♠ A ♦, A ♠ A ♣, A ♥ A ♦, A ♥ A ♣, A ♦ A ♣. Small pocket pairs, particularly at the lower limits in real money games, are often overlooked by newer poker players, even though they can be some of your biggest long-term winners. Being the one who initiates the action, or someone who follows, determines how to enter a hand. 7 percent. Tip #1: When in position, always bet for value This includes both single-raised pots and 3-bet pots. Pocket Pairs are strong hands but stacking off with the baby pairs can be risky as there are many. Small Pairs. Set mining means calling preflop with a small pocket pair with the intention of hitting a set postflop and taking down a big pot. That's a tight way to play small pps, but you're only flopping a set 11% of the time and that's really the only way to get paid off at least when you're starting out. Pocket Pairs are the hands known to be the most exciting and trickiest hole cards to play because a player has both the options – winning big or getting wiped out. . Best Online Poker Sites. You want to make sure that you get the most from the hand, so don't be afraid the build the pot by betting and raising. Pocket pairs are a rather polarizing hand in that you either hit the board pretty hard or you miss completely. For an improved article-browsing experience, go to our primary blog page here and use the check boxes at. To compensate for the lack of information when opening first, you should stick to a tight range of strong hands, including high-pocket pairs, suited aces, and suited broadway hands, to maximize your chances of winning the pot. Paired Hands (Pocket Pairs) Paired Hands are also called pocket pairs. How to play pocket kings. Small pairs will almost always be up against at least one overcard on the flop, and when you find yourself all-in preflop, you will either be crushed or in a coinflip for your stack or tournament life. There are thirteen different pocket pairs (one for each rank) and six different ways of making each. But, limping UTG lets you draw more opponents into the pot and. The key to this is knowing how people play pocket pairs. EV= 0. However, they put $100 each, so that’s 48% of $500, i. 22-66 Fold 77-99 Raise to standard for table, figure out how deep you are to see if you can profitably set-mine if 3-bet, fold to 4-bet. Play Pocket Tens. This is because you can expect to win much more when you do hit your set on the flop. Many amateurs fall into this bad habit because they are the #1 starting hand. Pocket pairs are commonly described to particularly by their rank, for as “pocket aces” for a starting hand of two Aces (aka pocket rockets). In live 1-2, getting tricky with them and trying to steal (after missing) is usually a mistake. In hold'em it can be profitable to play pocket pairs because the 1/8 times you hit your set, you can really stack a dude. Being dealt a pair of aces gives you the chance to win a huge pot. The Importance of Knowing Premium Poker Hands. Your strategy is defined by two main factors: the strength of your pocket. Pocket pairs are one of the most exciting. What is a Pocket Pair in Poker: A Concise Guide for. It sure looks like a premium hand, but it’s essentially a mid-sized pocket pair. And if you play against recreational. Playable in any position - Stronger opening bets mixed with limps or calls, Play this one fast if you are ahead on the flop. How to Play Medium Pocket Pairs Next up, we’re going to take a closer look at how to play medium pocket pairs. Playing small pocket pairs can be a challenge as they can give you a false sense of a strong hand, while in reality, their value is relatively weak if not. 1. A: There are 6 combos of each pocket pair, meaning across 13 different card values, there are 78 combos of pocket pairs. It’s very intuitive that Pocket Queens are a strong hand preflop since it’s a strong pair before the flop. How to play AQ, AJ, and AT – New No Bullshit 6-max 15. Pocket aces, kings and queens all have it dominated, while against hands like ace-king (AKA Big Slick) and ace-queen – both hands players tend to play – it’s a coin flip. In live 1-2, getting tricky with them and trying to steal (after missing) is usually a mistake. Pocket Twos have the best efficiency of all the pocket pairs because almost every hand has two overcards against it. Note: If you want to win at poker, you need a solid preflop strategy. 3. Pocket Pairs (99-22) Pocket pairs make huge hands when they flop sets. So, the chance of being dealt a pocket pair is 78/1326 = 5. Pre-Flop Probabilities: Hand vs. Warning: Do not slow play!This is a list of all poker strategy articles that are marked as starting hands. Set mining refers to the practice of playing a non-premium pocket pair passively preflop in the hopes of flopping three of a kind (a "set"). The chance that you're opponent may fold increasing the profit from playing this hand considerably. How to Play Aces. You sit waiting patiently for that big pair, and then BOOM: pocket Jacks! Now what? This page is going to be a collection of fun and interesting spots with big pairs, from pocket Tens to Aces, chock full of tips and strategy to win more with these rare pairs. Pocket Pairs •Play big pocket pairs aggressively: raise •Play small pocket pairs carefully –When the pot is big (lots of players) Big cards •Play big cards aggressively: raise •Aces >> kings •Suited >> unsuited. When they hit, they make big pot hands (sets, flushes, full houses, etc. You’re almost always going to see an overcard, and it isn’t always easy to know where you stand. 3 Tips for Playing When You Hit Top Pair on the Flop with Ace-Jack Suited. Small pocket pairs (66 through 22) are more speculative hands, so they are best played as set mines when the stack sizes are very deep. Tip #2: Always fast-play your trips or two pairs . Naturally, the lower down the pocket pair, the less value it has. If you get any of these pairs in your hand, you have a reasonably strong chance of winning a one-on-one confrontation. You can use it as a bluff when there are not many other natural bluffs in your range (straight draws, naked ace of spades on a three spade board, etc. For a newcomer, some sage advice might. No matter what. Today's H. Small pocket pairs might look nice as a starting hand, but you should be dumping most of them in early position. Raise preflop, or call a raise. ago. I like to raise the low PP's (22-55) in EP some 60-70% of the time and play them just as I would any big pair. You can raise in late position, but make your raises big. Small suited aces though are very powerful hands and they are often misunderstood. This calls for passive play with your whole range, pocket aces included. These hands are. About 70BB+ should do the trick. How to Play Pocket Aces . If any ace is 52% or better to win, it only makes sense that any pocket pair is even more valuable. If you look at the odds of flopping a set, you will be looking at a probability of about 8 to 1. Set mining is only one of many possible approaches to take when playing small-to-medium pairs. See the flop and then act! Another way to approach pocket tens might be to consider your position first. Your goal is still to flop a set, but your post-flop play will. For example, A ♠ A ♥, A ♠ A ♦, A ♠ A ♣, A ♥ A ♦, A ♥ A ♣, A ♦ A ♣. The effective stack size is one of the biggest considerations when deciding on how you want to play a pocket pair (the effective stack being the smallest of the two in a heads-up pot). Categorizing Pocket Pairs and How to Play Them. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. The notation 22+ means you should be playing 22 and all other higher-ranking pocket pairs. Additionally, you can get in cheap and end up winning the pot. These outcomes include: Having enough opponents to supply the correct pot odds. With a pocket pair JJ to play better against one or two opponents. If no set and no cards over 10 flop. How to Play Low Pocket Pairs in Middle Position. While it seems like you get dealt pairs a lot, the actual odds of receiving any pocket pair is just 5. 1%. Related Reading: How to Play Small Pocket Pairs in 6-Max Hold'em; SnG ABCs: Small Pocket Pairs; Top-Pair Hands. A pocket pair is when a player is dealt two cards of the same rank, such as two aces or two sixes. Pot odds and mathematics of hitting a set. 8% of the time, as mentioned. Let’s take a look at one such scenario: Example: The Button raises and the Big Blind calls. 10 out of 49 = 20% - second card - multiplied by. How to Play QQ, KK, AA – New No Bullshit 6-max 14. Low Pocket Pairs. The one hand that gives beginners more trouble than ace-king or even ace-queen has to be pocket jacks. Single Pair Hands: This encompasses overpairs to pocket pairs below the third pair, constituting the other 88% of flop outcomes. Keep rolling until you “farkle” (run out of dice and lose your score) or decide to stop and keep your score. With 20 big blinds in an unopened pot, all the small pocket pairs can be shoved profitably from the button or small blind. 1. Tip #3: If the board is paired, always fire a c-bet. Suited connectors are probably among the most complicated hands to play correctly in Texas Hold'em. Regardless of whether your top pair is on a King-high flop or an Ace-high flop, your hand is very strong, and extracting value should be your immediate priority. For example, for Pocket Aces, we would divide 6 combinations by 1,326 total combinations to see that we’ll receive this hand every 1 in 221 hands. Pockets Kings are the second-best starting hand in poker. There are two key situations where the value of pocket aces starts to fade: 1. 3. 1. For this reason, many players will refuse to play pocket pairs below fives. To compensate for the lack of information when opening first, you should stick to a tight range of strong hands, including high-pocket pairs, suited aces, and suited broadway hands, to maximize your chances of winning the pot. Add a second player with another pocket pair to the hand and your chance at losing the pot doubles. Playable in any position - Stronger opening bets mixed with limps or calls, Play this one fast if you are ahead on the flop. Middle position gives players a little more breathing room to play low pocket pairs. In this video we are going to talk about how to play with low pocket pairs on the pre-flop. Hello, i've been playing a lot of cash games online lately, mostly 0,05/0,10, and dont really know how to play big pocket pairs after flop when there is an overcard. So don’t play aces this way all the time. The most common and practical way to play middle pocket pairs. In Omaha Hold ’em, a pocket pair would mean you have two same cards in your hand. Peaking at one, you see a beautiful red “ACE” ! Your body fills with hope. To increase pot size while having the most equity. 7%. Specifically, Ace-Ten offsuit is worth raising from every position at a 6-handed table. After the flop you need to put your opponent on a range and analyze the strength of your hand before deciding how to proceed. In other words, we're talking primarily about small. CardsChat Freerolls. low pairs are only useful is the flop brings the. Texas hold ’em pocket card nicknames. For flushes on the flop assuming you have suited pocket cards and where you need 3 cards of the same suit you need to muliply the odds of each card being of the suit you need, not add them: 11 out of 50 = 22% for first card - multiplied by. If you’re dealt a pair of queens when you play poker online games, you’ll have the last of the top three best starting hands. Raising from early position pre-flop gives your opponents the impression you have a premium hand. Pocket Sevens are a very strong starting hand, falling within the top 6-7% of all starting hands. In Texas Hold'em, a pocket pair refers to a situation where a player's two hole cards are of the same rank. I mean you can play how ever you want, check raise, bluff. One of the ideal scenarios when playing Kings is when you’re opponent hits a Queen or Jack on the flop, with a strong kicker. It must be stressed that aces are definitely not a hand to be slowplayed. Tip #3 – Play top pairs aggressively when in position in single-raised pots. Let’s not forget that pocket Kings are a great starting hand in hold’em and will win you a lot of chips over the long term. Of course you also have to look out for the possibility. Poker Rules; Poker Hands; Poker Games; Poker Terms; Online Poker with Friends;Pocket eights are to be played to do one of two things: trip-up on the flop so that you have a very good set, or steal the pot by managing the hand as if it is, or could be, stronger than it really is. It reduced to 30-35% if all players stay till the end of. Flop c-betting range: Sets, two pairs, most top pairs, 2 nd pairs, 3 rd pairs, low pocket pairs, open-enders, all gut-shots, runner-runner flush draws. 4-bet is someone else 3-bets. #13. Well, early in tournaments, at most tables, I’d just raise. Pocket Jacks tend to play best in either multi-player pots, when four or more players see the flop, or heads up against one other player. When you have pocket aces in your hand, it’s important that you try to build the pot quickly. How to play with pairs on hand? How many times to raise, for example, with pairs smaller than 10/10? Forum. Regardless of whether you hit top pair with the Ace or Jack, your hand will be very strong, and. Instead, your strategy should be to scare the opponents into folding, even if it requires a bit of bluffing. 4) When you hit your set, play it fast. Once you get a set, playing passively is the last thing you want to do. 1. That’s why calling 3-bets with small pocket pairs is usually a losing play. A particularly dangerous board with the possibility of straights, flushes or full houses. The probability of hitting a set once a Flop is dealt is 18% compared to 12% in regular Hold’em. Get in cheap and hit big to scoop the pot. You should raise preflop with pocket Queens. It's not uncommon to see three sets of trips at showdown, or a couple boats, a flush, and top two pair. 2. When you hit a monster hand on a flop like or , start piling money in that pot! If you raised preflop, c-bet on the flop. If you’re playing at a 9-handed table, you should fold it from the two earliest positions (UTG and UTG+1 in the graphic below). Certainly, hands like 2-2 to 5-5 should be folded to any LP raise.