medium pairs UTG

[chill888]

Hypothetical:
S&G: maybe 35 hands gone. Blinds starting to rise. 8 left from 10. Hero has about average chips at this point. Net no crisis - but not the worst hand.


How do people play 88 99 10 10 in UTG or early position?

I pretty much auto fold them unless limping feels like it would be successful based on earlier action. Basically, i can't raise with these at this point and puke if i a limp gets raised.

THoughts? criticism?

regards,

[NotMitch]

I'm going to raise 3X BB with all of these. Folding TT UTG is waaaaaay to tight even for me.

[durron597]

Can you give more specific information about stack size compared to blinds?

[chill888]

Maybe 1500 stack versus 50 100 blind

[chill888]

Notmitch,

what do you do if raise.

Remeber you have bet a substantial portion of chips

tx for opinion,

regards

[DrPublo]

Definitely no easy way to play this.

If the table has been running passive (Several limpers to a flop), I'll limp and go from there. If I flop an overpair I'm probably going to the felt, especially if theres a good amount of money in the pot already.

If the table has been running tight, as in one raise will steal the blinds and almost no hands go to a flop, I'll raise and hope for the best.

If the table is tight/agressive or just agressive and you know if you limp you'll be facing a raise later on, I'll probably raise TT and 99 but muck 88, or maybe flip a coin whether to raise/muck the 99. TT is a definite raise.

Sometimes these situations happen and theres no easy way to play it.

The Doc

[soxfan70]

In my mind, this game is about controlled aggression in the right spots. UTG is not the right spot to be aggressive with a hand that if played back at, you would be correct to fold. I call here, and play for set value or an undercard flop. If you dont hit it, or are played back at, then you're only out 1 BB. Better spots will come.

[NotMitch]

[ QUOTE ]
Notmitch,

what do you do if raise.

Remeber you have bet a substantial portion of chips

tx for opinion,

regards

[/ QUOTE ]

Well you have 15X the BB and about going to be down to 13.5 after the next two hands. The first thing you need to think about is what happens if you limp? Is it likely to set off limps behind you or is it going to get raised? If it is going to get raised limping is clealy not a good play. If you expect limps you are playing for a set, but I'm not a fan of open limping for 7% of my stack.

If you open raise what will happen? My standard open raise has become 2.5x BB, so that leaves you with 1250. What if you get rerasied? You certainly have the space to fold or if you feel someone is making a play you can call. If someone just calls my open I'm likely to lead out about 400 on almost every flop that doesn't give me a set, and I expect to pick up the pot a lot. If I get raised I'm in a tough spot but if I fold Im in bad but not afwul shape.

Some of this depends on your image and other players at the table but I dont think you have the luxury of throwing away these types of hands at this point. Unless the other players are weak tight and you can steal a lot.

[poboys]

I completely agree with this analysis. I limp, if I get min-raised, I happily call. Much more than that I fold. Most of the tables I play (30 PP SnG) if more than one person limps, you rarely see much of a raise, esp in Level 3.