My Leak (one of 'em at least)

[wonkadaddy]

shorthanded i can't figure out how to play middle pairs to a raise. w/66-99

obviously i raise these holdings if no one is in the pot yet. but if someone has already raised the pot i usually reraise to prevent other callers (especially the BB) from coming in.

unfortunately i still lose a lot of flops to my opponent with overcards and sometimes am almost drawing dead the whole hand to my opponent w/an overpair. postflop, if a continuation bet doesn't win it, i've often got no clue where i'm at for the rest of the hand and am in danger of getting bluffed or paying someone off.

to a more legitimate utg raiser could i consider folding 66 and 77? 88 amd 99? what about when i'm on the button and the first in raiser is in the cutoff? and does it ever make sense to coldcall (like if the BB is extremely tight and likely to fold anyways?)

thanks for any replies/advice

[xLukex]

My advice is to go into pokertracker and replay every hand with these pairs.

Honestly, you will be surprised how much you learn about your own play.

Other than that, I only raise these hands if I'm either first in or late position with one limper.

[wonkadaddy]

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Other than that, I only raise these hands if I'm either first in or late position with one limper.

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so what about against a raiser? are you folding or coldcalling here? neither option seems very good to me, but i've been having bad results w/3-betting here also so....

[jph0424]

It really depends on who is raising. If a guy with a PFR under 10 is the raiser I am mucking 66-99 virtually every time. But if it is a player who is more agressive preflop, isolating them and then playing your hand aggressively is the best way to go. Sure sometimes you will have to make difficult decisions but they are definitely +EV hands.

[spaminator101]

small pocket pairs are the kind of hand that usually only win if you can flop a set
you will flop a set about 1/8th of the time
so it is mathmatically correct to cold call the raise
first of all if you reraise and some one pops it again you cant call

[wonkadaddy]

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small pocket pairs are the kind of hand that usually only win if you can flop a set

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in a likely headsup scenario & w/position???

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you will flop a set about 1/8th of the time

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close enuf i guess

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so it is mathmatically correct to cold call the raise

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(contradicting yourself--if i can only win by hitting my set it's def. not correct to call)

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if you reraise and some one pops it again you cant call

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what's your handle? i got an invite for a 10-20 game that'd luv to have you /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[mperich]

OK, Basically you are wanting to 3bet these hands 100% of the time unless there are VERY loose players behind you who will call 3 cold, or if the original raiser is pretty tight (ballpark ~10% PFR). You usually have the best hand, position, and dead money from the blinds here, what more could you ask for. Note that against bad/predictable players this play has even more merit, as they won't put you to the test too often postflop.

-Mike