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Take quizPocket pairs are some of the most profitable but sometimes also the trickiest of poker hands to play, depending on stack depth, position, and the actual strength of the pair in question.
Some of the best hands in Texas Hold’em fall into the category of pocket pairs, such as AA, KK, and QQ. However, a number of more speculative poker hands, like 22, 55, or 77, are in there as well.
The truth is that there is no single perfect strategy that you can apply to play pocket pairs in poker. Rather, your strategy with each particular pocket pair will depend on a number of criteria.
In this article, we will consider how to pair various types of pocket pairs depending on stack depth and shatter some common myths many players believe about pocket pairs.
Premium pocket pairs (JJ – AA) are probably some of the easiest poker hands to play before the flop, as they are some of the best hands in the game.
Regardless of stack depth, these hands are almost always considered monsters, which allows you to raise and re-raise with them almost indefinitely.
Of course, it is worth noting that a hand like AA or even KK is much different than a hand like JJ, especially as stacks get deeper and the risk of running into an overpair increases.
At shallower stack sizes (under 30 big blinds), you should almost always be willing to put in your stack with any premium pocket pair, including pocket Jacks.
On the other hand, as the stacks increase, especially in cash games, pairs like Jacks and Queens become a bit trickier, and you can play a mixed strategy between pushing for all the chips or flat-calling 3-bets and 4-bets for both deception and protection.
Adding hands like JJ and QQ into your more passive lines allows you to have strong holdings in those ranges as well, which makes them more balanced and overall stronger.
While you can almost never go wrong stacking off for 25 big blinds in a tournament with JJ or QQ, getting it in for 300 big blinds in a cash game will require the right kind of opponent to go up against.
While premium pocket pairs are usually pretty easy to play, all other pairs are much more complex and require some consideration. Sure enough, you can always go for a raise, whatever happens when you have AA, but holding a hand like 55 or 99 facing a raise can be a lot more complicated.
The truth is that the way you play your pocket pairs will depend heavily on your stack size and the stack size of other players at the table.
This is exactly why strategies of poker players in tournaments and cash games with pocket pairs differ so drastically, as the differing stack sizes force different optimal strategies.
Many poker players play all their pocket pairs when the pot is not opened, regardless of anything, including their stack size.
For instance, on a stack of 20 big blinds, many players either raise or just limp with a hand like 22 or 33, but this is far from the recommended strategy.
In fact, the smallest of the pocket pairs, such as 22, 33, and 44, can be folded in early positions even on deeper stacks, as there are a number of concerns to consider:
For all these reasons, getting rid of the smallest pocket pairs in your range before the flop is often a good idea on all tournament stack sizes, while in deep-stack cash games, you may consider opening all your pairs.
The one play that’s definitely not recommended is a limp, as you should not be limping any of the hands in your range anyway.
As you get into the later positions, you can start opening more hands, and all pocket pairs certainly get into the opening ranges from the hijack and onward.
On smaller stack sizes (up to 20 big blinds), some of the lower pocket pairs can be used as part of your all-in range, as this denies your opponents an opportunity to call the small raise and force you to fold postflop.
Since small pocket pairs can’t withstand a 3-bet, moving all-in for up to 20 big blinds is often the best play, as it takes that play out of your opponents’ arsenal as well.
Set mining is a poker term that refers to the idea of calling a raise before the flop with a pocket pair in the hopes of making a set on the flop or later streets.
While set mining can make sense in some situations, most players apply this approach to pocket pairs way too often in all positions and at all stack depths.
When considering whether to set mine or not with a pocket pair, you should consider the following elements first:
The first thing to know is that making a set with a pocket pair is not easy. In fact, you will only make a set on the flop about 12% of the time you hold a pair, or about one in 8.5 times.
All other times, you will not have a set, although some other boards may work favorably for your pocket pair, and the higher pairs still have a chance of remaining overpairs to some runouts.
However, in terms of set mining alone, you need to understand that it will not work out too often, which is why you must win significant amounts of chips when it does.
Also, keep in mind that flopping a set does not mean you automatically win the pot, as your opponents will sometimes make a higher set or a hand like a flush or straight to beat you by the river.
Yet, if the stacks are deep enough, you are in position against your opponent, and there is a good chance of seeing the flop, set mining can be profitable.
For example, imagine a scenario in a $1/3 cash game at the Bellagio. A UTG player opens to $10 with a stack of $450, and you are in the cutoff with a covering stack with 3s3d.
The effective stack stands at $450, which is 45x the original raise. Generally speaking, it is recommended to set mine only when the effective stack is at least 25x the raise size, which is the case this time.
The next thing you need to consider is the players still left to act behind you. If there are some very active players on the button and the blinds, you may still want to fold your Treys, as there is a decent likelihood of a squeeze coming in.
If you do call and one of the other players makes a big re-raise, you will have to fold your hand. If you don’t, you will basically be setting money on fire, as you are no longer getting enough implied odds with your baby pocket pair.
If the players behind are not too active, you can call with your pocket pair and set mine. If the hand goes multi-way, it can actually work in your favor. Sets are generally not as vulnerable to multiple opponents in the hand as one pair or two pair hands.
Another extremely common mistake in Texas Hold’em is calling 3-bets with small to medium pocket pairs too often. Hands like 22, 55, or 66 perform very poorly against 3-bets simply because it’s very hard to connect with the board with them.
Unless you flop a set, you will never have a big hand on the flop with small pocket pairs, which means you will almost never be sure you have the best hand.
What’s even more, even when you do flop a set, you won’t always win your opponent’s whole stack, and the raise to stack ratio will not be nearly as high as it is when facing a single raise.
For that reason, it is usually better to fold small pairs with a shorter stack when you open the pot and get re-raised while continuing with various other hands, such as premiums, suited connectors, and more.
If you are playing in a very deep-stacked cash game setting, you may still be able to profitably call a 3-bet with a pocket pair, especially in position, as your opponent may have more than 25x the re-raise size in their stack.
We talked about when to open the pot or call a raise before the flop with pocket pairs, but what about re-raising with them?
The truth is that other than premium pocket pairs, other pairs are usually not good candidates for preflop 3-bets or 4-bets. Pocket pairs have all the attributes you don’t want a bluffing hand to have, making them some of the worst bluffing hands.
Pocket pairs don’t bluff any of your opponent’s value hands like AA, AK, QQ, or JJ. Instead, they unblock those cards, making such combos more likely.
They also don’t connect with a wide variety of flops. Instead, they either flop a set or they don’t, making many other boards very difficult to play.
The next time you find yourself facing a raise or a 3-bet with a pocket pair and think about re-raising, think again and remember all the better hands you could have in your hand to make such a play.
Instead of bluffing preflop with your pocket pairs, choose hands like suited Aces, suited Kings, or suited Broadways as your go-to bluffing options while flat-calling or folding your paired cards.
The one time when pocket pairs become a great candidate to re-raise is when the stacks are quite shallow, which tends to happen in tournament poker.
At stack depths between 15 and 30 big blinds, small pocket pairs become the perfect hands to shove over the top of a raise and pick up some free chips.
For example, imagine you are playing in a tournament online with blinds at 400/800/800 and a player on the cutoff raises to 1,600. With a stack of 14,500, you look down at 55 in the small blind.
Calling this raise with your pocket Fives would be way too loose, as you are out of position, have another player left to act, and are not getting as good of a price as you would be in the big blind.
However, your hand is actually a perfect shoving candidate. Your stack is large enough to where the opener will fold a solid portion of their opening range, allowing you to pick up 3,600 chips without any fight.
On the other hand, you will often get called by hands like AK or AQ, in which case you are a slight favorite, and with the dead money in the pot, you are in a pretty good spot.
Of course, your pocket pairs will sometimes run into bigger pairs as well, but the amount of chips you pick up along the way will far outweigh the chips you lose in such rare situations.
Pocket pairs are some of the most commonly misplayed hands in Texas Hold’em, often thanks to players playing them inappropriately for their stack size.
Different pairs can be perfect hands to go all-in with on smaller stack sizes, great set mining candidates in others, and an easy fold in some, all depending on stack size.
Before you play your next poker game, play around with your hand histories and try to find some hands where you set mined on a small stack, went all-in for too many chips, or misplayed your pocket pair in other ways.
By adjusting your pocket pair poker strategy for future games, you will learn how to pick up tons of chips and win more often, whether you play deep-stacked cash games, turbo tournaments, or any other poker format.
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