Pocket Pair Questions

[Tanthalaas]

I play Party Poker NL 50 tables. Generally pretty loose and somewhat aggressive.

I have two questions.

1. I make a 5 BB raise with JJ or QQ and get reraised to 12 BB or so. I don't have a very good read on the person and they probably don't on me either. What should I do?

2. I raise with a hand and make it. For example, I raise with JJ and flop top trips. I almost always follow up my preflop raise with a bet, so what should I do in this situation when I am so far ahead?

[SpaceAce]

[ QUOTE ]
I play Party Poker NL 50 tables. Generally pretty loose and somewhat aggressive.

I have two questions.

1. I make a 5 BB raise with JJ or QQ and get reraised to 12 BB or so. I don't have a very good read on the person and they probably don't on me either. What should I do?

2. I raise with a hand and make it. For example, I raise with JJ and flop top trips. I almost always follow up my preflop raise with a bet, so what should I do in this situation when I am so far ahead?

[/ QUOTE ]

#1) With no read, I think you have to play your QQ or JJ. Stack sizes have a lot to do with it but in general, QQ is plenty strong to play for a reraise on PartyPoker.

#2) Do what you usually do: bet. Unless the flop is menacing, don't make such a huge bet that you are guaranteed to get no callers but I think you should still bet when the action is to you.

SpaceAce

[muzungu]

Ooh, me too! So, in theory, I should have some insight here...

1. Jacks are tricky. Problem is, if he's solid and reraising with QQ-AA, AK, or AQ, you're not significantly ahead of any of those hands. Plus, unless the raiser is in the blinds, he's got position on you as well. With deep $, maybe you can call and hope for a set, but if your stacks are small, maybe you fold here. Another thought to consider: what if the flop comes all rags? Do you bet and fold to a raise? Or check and fold to a bet (which he will probably make with anything he's reraised with)? Tough to come up with a good postflop strategy here.

With Queens, on the other hand, you beat or tie enough of the big hands (and all the smaller hands that some party whackos play) that I'd go to war here. With fairly small stacks, you could probably go all-in for 50 BB or so. Alternately, you could call here and go all in if no A or K appears... then again, maybe an all-in now would get AK to fold. So between these options I'm not sure, but I'd want to play here.

2. Truly, it depends on what is on the board in addition to your J. If the board is coordinated, you should definitely bet out, and bet fairly hard. Even though you are so far ahead for the time being, your hand is vulnerable to str8s and flushes so you can't slowplay.

With an uninteresting board, you can afford to get tricky. One idea is to make a medium-sized bet (say, 1/2 pot) on the flop, and check the turn if you get called, representing a passive AK. Alternately, you could check twice (as was suggested in a similar thread on AA with a 338 board), hoping for a bet on either street or looking for callers of your eventual river bet.

-muz