Preflo decisions with less than premium pocket pairs

[BluffTHIS!]

If you follow Doyle's SS strategy which I believe in when the game conditions warrant it (deep stacks unlike the small max buyin/blind ratio found in most online and a lot of live games), then the answer is that having raised with such a pair 99-JJ (with queens being in the same category once you are raised), YOU TAKE NO HEAT WITH THEM AND FOLD PRE-FLOP, thus avoiding any such traps as being dominated by an overpair, or in the case of a tough player who will play AK with no help on the flop the same as a pair of aces, the similar trap of making a wrong decision when you actually hold the best hand. This avoids the typical small favorite/big dog situation.

In a similar manner, had in fact you been in early position and limped and gotten raised, you would only call if the stack sizes were favorable (getting about 8-1 implied odds) or could assume another limper or two would also call and thus in toto being laid favorable odds to flop a set, which if you did not, would dictate a fold, regardless of a rag board.

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a. Raise. If he folds, I win. If he reraises, I am getting such ridiculous odds that I am almost forced to call, as folding the best hand here would be catastrophic.


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This is not correct. You call pre-flop the pot now stands at 215x2+35 blind $$ =465, with him now having a 2285 stack and you 1385. Now if you check and he pots it, and you min raise to like 900, and he pushes in, you are getting odds of the 1600 he matched you preflop + the 1115 you already have in the pot for 1600+1115=2715 to the 485 you have left or about 5.6-1 to call allin. Assuming that it is indeed an overpair you are facing and thus you were only a 4.5-1 dog to start, you are now, assuming he does not have one of your nines and thus 45 unseen cards after the flop, a 10.88-1 dog to make a set by the river, thus necessitating a FOLD unless you strongly believe he would make that move with only overcards.

[evanski]

Your analysis regarding the situation in which I minraise and he pushes is wrong. There would be 485 in the pot, he bets 485, I minraise (which I dont especially like, but since you said it, Ill go with it). That puts 485*4 + 215 x 2 = 2170 + blinds if he pushes. He would have 1600 - 485 x 2 - 215 = 400 or so. So youre basically right in that Id be getting 5 and a half to one or so. So I need to win 1/6.5 or about 12 percent. So, even if I only have the best hand 1 in 10, or even less, the call is right. It is absolutely impossible and absolutely wrong to fold in that situation.

More importantly, you seem to be advocating it as a potential line. Even if it were right to fold in that spot, it would cost me 3/4 of my stack to find out.

-Evan

[BluffTHIS!]

Sorry, I got the stack sizes reversed. What I am advocating is Doyle's strategy of taking no heat and folding pre-flop.