is one pair really good enuf?
there's been some discussion about whether u can go to the felt with just a pair in a cash game. i only play full ring cash games and i've found that it's very difficult to be profitable going to war with just a pair after the flop. again, please keep in mind my comments are based on experience at live and online full ring cash games.
when i first started playing cash games, i had a very difficult time folding overpairs. obv, i'm not insta-folding to a LAGGY donk. but, i will try to manage the size of the pot after the flop with just a pair. u can easily get stacked by someone set mining u. u definitely have to pay close attn to who the nut peddlers are and who are the donks that overplay hands or try to semi-bluff their draws and attempt steals on the river when they miss. this is why i only 2-table cash games. i don't want to miss a hand watching tv or effing around on the web while i'm playing cash games. one bad decision can cost u all your chips and this is real money not just tournament chips.
i'm posting my stats at 1/2 NL for my last 4600 hands. even tho i'm playing my pocket pairs cautiously, i'm still not profitable going to showdown with just a pair. most of my profit comes from showing down 2p or higher.
maybe at 6-max, going to war with just a pair can be profitable. i'd like to see some ptracker stats demonstrating that.
also, please remember this is 1/2 NL. the play is mostly straight forward at 200 NL. it gets much trickier at 2/4 and higher. i've had some bloggers sit down with me at 1/2 and get frustrated because their fancy higher limit plays don't work here. it's ABC nut peddlin nit poker that will get u the cash at 1/2. it's much harder to get paid off playing this style at higher limits.
i would compare FTP's 1/2 NL online game to MGM's 1/2 live game, donkey heaven. but, table selection is key.
one last thing, i wish this guy would wake from his drunken slumber and update the BBT Leaderboard.
i'd really like to know how close to the top of Blonkey Mountain i currently reside.
Friday, April 27, 2007
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8 comments:
You can go to war with just an over pair or TPTK in cash games in specific situations. Here is an example. You hold AA or KK, and it is opened before you for a raise. You reraise back, and they call getting less than 8-1 implied odds. Now you can +EV push any flop with AA and any non A flop with KK. Also, against short stacks, I have no problem making them go to the felt when I only have a pair.
As far as the PT stats, you will need to live with losing over-all with a pair. Nobody overall wins with just a pair longterm.
Al is on vacation to DC with some of the donk..err..bloggers.
You just want to see your name above Waffle on BBT leaderboard.
Third in 4/11 mookie (77 entrants) was worth 103.9 points
FYI I believe Al is away for the weekend for some (drunken) revelry with some other bloggers. I'm sure he will update the BBT leaderboard upon his triumphant return, maybe later in the weekend.
It's interesting about the one pair thing. It's not like I'm trying to say that one pair is a monster or anything even remotely close to that. It's a sucky hand to take to showdown if there's been a lot of action. At 6-max it's different than full ring though, there is not nearly as often a big hand out there as in a ring game. But still it's not like one pair is a huge hand. I'll repeat something I wrote about earlier in the week -- almost all of my really big pots are won with hands bigger than one pair. But I win tons of my small pots with one pair of some kind. The key really is to just be willing and able to get away from these hands if there is a lot of pressure and your read is that you're beat.
And FYI that whole post of mine was really from a recockuhorrible bluff that fluxer made at me last night at that cash table (I think somewhere between his 4th and 5th stacking of the evening), when he suddenly moved allin out of the blue against me on the river, and I insta-called him with just KQ on a King high board. I stacked him with his T6o and no hit whatsoever on the board, and all I got from him was a few comments about how horrible my call was. Good stuff. I love laying a great read on someone and then getting berated because they tried to bluff but you saw through it. Fonkeys are the best.
One pair is a loser (significant loser) in my tracker stats as well over like 16k hands...so i agree that one pair sucks...even at max 6's
All nice and updated. You lead Wawfuls by a whole 0.7 points.
Great job by you and elfie at the Mookie.
I hope you didnt take my comment wrong. I was just pointing out a difference between full and 6max - especially a laggy 6 max table.
I am a complete tight ass nit in live full ring games (ok, maybe i mix it up a little when boredom sets in)
Using one pair hands in pokertracker to see if you can play one pair hands for stacks (100BB or more) is sort of foolish IMO. Most of those hands that you receive one pair are shit one pair hands like 3rd pair, and if I remember correctly, you don't even have to go to showdown for pokertracker to sort it out into that category. Say you held 36o in the BB and you check/folded a A72 board, but the turn came a 3 completing your one pair hand. So, that is classified as a loser for you in the one pair category, although I certainly wouldn't be classifying it as anything other than well played.
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