Big pairs

[FUBAR]

No not breasts [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

I have been getting busted out of tournies with big pairs because it is very hard for me to lay them down. It seems that raising the blinds x3 or x4 doesnt get the marginal hands to fold and these are the hands that if the flop hits them you have no way to no it.

In the first few rounds when the blinds are tiny compared to stack size I have been raising the blinds by x15 to x20 depending on position, chip count ect ect.

Yes sometimes you win just the blinds and aa and kk are worth more than that but the hands that call(in my experience)ak, jj qq that you dominate more than make up for it.

I dont know, I might be way off here. Any comments appreciated.

Peter

[fnurt]

You can't always force action to happen. If the blinds are 10/20 and it's folded around to you in SB with pocket aces, some people will just complete hoping that BB will catch something and pay them off. "It would be such a waste to win only 20 chips with AA," they reason. To me this is a huge mistake.

If BB has some crappy hand like 82o, the idea that he is going to flop a pair and get excited enough to call you down for hundreds of chips is just fantasy. But if he flops 2 pair or something, do you think you will be paying him off? You bet you will!

A far better move in this situation is to raise whatever your normal pre-flop raise is. BB will suspect you of stealing and may call or raise with any decent hand, so why not give yourself the chance to win some decent amount. The way you win huge pots with AA is by running up against good hands like KK or AK, which obviously is beyond your control, and not by suckering some guy with 82o. If the poker gods haven't given your opponents anything decent this time, just take the blinds, and try again with your next big pair.