$1/$2 s/h game UTG Pocket 10s.... Q Q 3 board, ok to fire a bet?

[A-Baum]

Is it ok to fire a bet when you hold a high pocket pair in early position in a short handed game and the board comes with a higher pair to see where you stand?

6 handed game, maybe 3 or 4 see the flop, is this a bad move to see where you stand? I like this play because in these low limits a player that holds a 4 on a Q Q 4 board will bet and I won't know if it's trips or just low pair. At least with a SB bet I can figure out where I am, and many times take the pot right there.

Thoughts?

[CallMeIshmael]

You essentially have to bet here. WAY too many free cards can kill you.

Also... the hand convertor tends to make posts easier to follow (because of previous action, and position, and the like)

[imported_PP123]

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You essentially have to bet here. WAY too many free cards can kill you.


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[belloc]

Finding out where you stand is not a good enough reason to bet. Sometimes that's a nice side effect of betting for a real reason, though.

You should bet here for value and to protect your hand. You're drawing to two outs against a Q, but you're ahead of just about everybody else. There are lots of big cards that can come to hurt you, so not betting here is very bad.

However, we need to know more about preflop action. Was it raised (hopefully by you)? Was it 3-bet? Position of raisers/callers? If a 3-bet came from your right, you might check/raise to face big cards (AJ, KJ) with two bets to go on the flop.

Also, you should post shorthanded games in the HUSH forum.

[A-Baum]

Well I wanted this to be sort of a general question about the situation which does come up once in a while.

You guys recommend raising TT UTG in positions like this? What's the thought process for this? I raise JJ-AA, but rarely TT. I like to limp with 66-TT in low limit, but maybe I should move my scale a little bit.

In this particular hand, it was unraised, and I am first to act and always fire a bet here. Do I fold to a raise immediately?

[JoshuaD]

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Well I wanted this to be sort of a general question about the situation which does come up once in a while.

You guys recommend raising TT UTG in positions like this? What's the thought process for this? I raise JJ-AA, but rarely TT. I like to limp with 66-TT in low limit, but maybe I should move my scale a little bit.

In this particular hand, it was unraised, and I am first to act and always fire a bet here. Do I fold to a raise immediately?

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TT on a board of QQ6 is pretty strong. I play it similiar to top pair.

[belloc]

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You guys recommend raising TT UTG in positions like this? What's the thought process for this? I raise JJ-AA, but rarely TT. I like to limp with 66-TT in low limit, but maybe I should move my scale a little bit.

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Yeah, in the games we're talking about here you should raise TT in EP. In certain games, I'll open with pairs as low as 77 here, and the threshold varies depending on the character of the table.

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In this particular hand, it was unraised, and I am first to act and always fire a bet here. Do I fold to a raise immediately?

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Not unless you want people to start raising you off your big hands on every flop. Most small stakes players will not raise this flop holding a Q. They decide to get fancy and wait to raise on the turn. Depending on the read and position and everything else (of course) you'll often 3-bet a flop raise here.