Playing a small or middle pocket pair?

On freerolls I see a lot of high stacked people just go allin with low pocket pairs. They are just happy to pick the few 3 or 4 (or maybe a little more if someone raised before him) big blinds.

I don't get this tactic. I once saw a high stacker do this with 44:

I raised 3 big blinds, some guy called, THEN he reraised allin (there were only 7-8 big blinds in pot). He goes allin (he has 100 Big blinds).

What do you think of this play and how would you play low pocket pair (in early stage of tournament, middle and late stage)


PS: btw I had QQ (and around 45 BB's) and called, he hit his set and it was byebye freeroll for me. LOL

well its like this early in tourney and middle,I will limp in if I can cheap.Later if I am in a good postion I usually push, but I will lay them down Quick like.

Yeah, no flopped set gotta fold those heh ;)

But in your case Lil, lol, you should fold a set unless its top set :)

thanks for reminding me,geez.lol, always nice to have support.

LOL come on lol! Its healthy joking :)

When playing pocket pairs I use the following rules for any pair 10's and under. Preflop I will limp if possible, but will call up to a 5x bb raise so long as the raiser has more than 20x bb in his remaining stack. If I limp and someone goes nuts and bumps it to anything more than 5x the bb I will fold.

Any pair over 10's get a raise preflop. The amount of the raise depends on the table, players, and feel. If I think I will get a player to call with a weaker hand for 6x the bb, then that's what it is. If I raise preflop and miss the flop my actions depends on the table. If it's a passive table that likes to check call my actions are defined. If it's a weak table that folds to pressure I have a course of action to follow. If it's an aggressive table that likes the check raise my actions are different still.

I've found that the best way to accumulate chips in both tournament and cash poker it to keep your opponents guessing. Don't play pocket 5's the same every time, change your style up with each occurrence.

"I've found that the best way to accumulate chips in both tournament and cash poker it to keep your opponents guessing. Don't play pocket 5's the same every time, change your style up with each occurrence".
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I'm liking your response! Thanks:D

That sounds like excellent advice. I do that at times too, change up my game to suit the table.

The Turkey

Yeah I do that too. Also depends on table position and how the hand is played before me. Small pockets are really a tougher hand than you think, because if you don't set you may be already in trouble if board hits overs.

IBGPN brings up a good point. What to do post flop with a mid pocket pair. When I have a pocket pair that is below 10 and I don't flop a set it is just a matter of time before I fold. I will check/fold. Now, how do you play a pocket pair that the board misses but your pair falls in the middle of the board. You have ten's and the flop is K,6,4. How do people play their hand now?

Well that depends on action of other player's, I might try to take that pot if I can get a good pulse on other players.

I agree Lilred, a well placed semi-bluff is a great thing. Sometimes it picks up the pot, other times it leads to a check raise. How the action unfolds and what you know of the other players is key to how to play the situation. Other player might check raise if they believe they can push you around. This means that your table image is just as important as your reads on other players. If you play loose aggressive, you can't expect people to fold to your semi-bluffs.

Nice commenting ffcowboy thanks a lot :)