Before I got up on the whole internet poker thing I was about the tightest nit you would ever see at a table. It was for good Darwinian reasons too – usually I played at my local card
room or home games where everyone would play as much garbage as possible. People would “flush mine” which is just a sinkhole attempt to go after any decent flush when holding two
suited cards, or play two or even three gapper cards trying to make a straight, or any ace from any position trying to just make top pair.
These are the people I’ve made a lot of money from. When I moved to playing online cash game poker (first I played full ring, now I mainly play 6max) I learned a lot of players at the
25nl and 50nl levels are actually quite tight contrary to my initial assumptions about what the game would be like. However I did see players overplay their Aces and Kings (see article 1) and
that’s when a friend told me about the power of playing pocket pairs – any pocket pairs.
Now for some of you this is an absolute easy assumption. But for players from the stone ages of poker (me) that are actually trying to catch up on the latest successful theories, playing 22
out of position and actually *raising the pot* with it was unheard of.
So what’s the magic strategy here? Easy – you’re mining for sets, a statistical 1 to 8.5 chance that you’ll flop. The idea is that you get in relatively cheap
compared to the opponent’s stack size and your implied odds more than make up for getting in with what might be the worst hand. Here’s a hand the over-demonstrates the point.
In this 6max game our hero limps behind for the big blind (which was actually a mistake, this should have been a raise to $1 or $1.25 in the 25nl game) and the CO (cutoff position, 1 before the
dealer) makes it $1 to go. The big blind and the original limper each call, and so our hero knows that one of them is most likely playing a pocket pair bigger than his 44. In addition
one of them (probably both) have good drawing hands like suited Aces or something like JT or even KQ. The flop hits our hero but looks a little scary. It’s very drawy (which is
good actually) meaning there is both a flush and straight draws possible from this flop. The hero then does not donk bet when checked to (meaning he does not bet before the original
raiser on the flop) who recognizes the danger and leads out with an overbet of the pot. The big blind goes all in, the limper calls, and our hero then sees the opportunity to get
everyone’s money in and makes a small raise. Sure enough, all the money goes into the pot and our hero’s set is a 78% favorite at the flop. It holds up and he takes down
what amounts to a massive pot at this 25nl level.
So at this point you should see the power behind having a set and the hidden monster it presents to your opponents – they just often don’t see it coming at them. Some of you might
say, “well what about if they hit the flush or the straight” … the good news against that is that if that happens at the turn (they hit *their* draw) you still have outs to a full
house that will definitely take their stack. For example:
In this hand our hero calls a standard 3x raise on the button with 88. Some would argue that this might be a 3bet opportunity with the button, but that argument is for another time. The
big blind calls and its three way to the flop. The big blind then donk bets into the pot with his bottom pair and Ace high flush draw. Our hero flats the bet sensing some sort of
commitment to the pot and trying not to get him out (not a great strategy, this was a time to raise). The big blind hits her flush and doubles her flop bet which amounts to a poor 33% bet
into the pot, and our hero then manages to make a poor raise. Now at this point from our perspective we’re seeing that our set is beaten, but its actually only a 80-20 dog since the
outs here are any 3, 8, 5, or J gives him a full house. Sure enough on the river he’s “saved” and the pot involves stacking off for the win.
The general guidelines for playing small pocket pairs …
1. Open with them in EP in 6max always. In a full ring game it can be acceptable to limp in EP (early position) if you know you’ll get raised or 3bet.
2. Only get into pots with small pocket pairs against villains with a decent stack size. No point in trying to set mine against a shortstacker because you aren’t presented with the
right odds to get in there.
3. The typical guideline for stack size and preflop amounts to be involved with are about 10%. If the villain raises to 15% of his stack size preflop, this really isn’t a bet you
should call. So make sure you keep those stack sizes and preflop bets in mind before employing this strategy.
