Originally Posted by stu_ungar  Before i start let me just state that i'm not in any way a poker expert or pro, and so my strategies might not be the best and are certainly welcome to criticism. However I believe my strategy is fairly decent as far as playing at low limits goes.
Whether i play top pair hands is really dependent on how big the stacks are compared to the amount of money going in preflop, as well as my position and the aggressiveness of the other players.
If you can raise it big enough so that anyone with drawing hands (SC's and small PP's) hasn't got the correct implied odds to see the flop, then you can play them profitably. This is almost always the case in CAP games, where a simple raise to 4xBB gives them slightly less than the required 8:1 implied odds to try to flop a set with a PP, and certainly doesn't give them good enough odds to see a flop with suited connectors. With deeper stacks, i'll normally fold top pair hands (except AK) out of position, and fold AQ or worse to a raise. The idea is that with top pair, you want to keep the pot small postflop, but big preflop. In CAP games the biggest it gets is 30BB, so i'm less worried about losing with top pair to a better hand, because it's unlikely they had good enough odds to see the flop in the first place.
With deep stacks you have to be able to often fold postflop when you hit top pair. Here, it is very difficult to raise preflop large enough to give the drawing hands bad odds without killing so much action that you only get called by a better hand. Also, position becomes even more important here. It is much easier to keep the pot smaller postflop when you have good position.
Also, if you're against weak loose players who will call all in with top pair weak kicker - or even worse (some opponents simply can't lay down their medium pocket pairs), then these hands are extremely profitable - if you can play them well. Otherwise you could find yourself losing your stack to some surprise holdings.
That's what i have to say about top pair hands. As for suited connectors and low PP's:
With SC's you are not trying to hit top pair. You're trying to hit a strong hand like a flush or a straight - hands you should be willing to go all in on. Unfortunately these don't come along very often. Only about 6% of the time will you flop a strong hand - 2Pair or better - and about 18% of the time you'll flop a strong draw (flush or OESD). So you only hit the flop about 24% of the time, and most of that time you only hit a draw. Therefore you are going to need huge implied odds in order to play it. You should never call a raise with these hands in a CAP game, and only call a raise with it in a regular game if the stacks are deep - you probably want something like 15:1 implied odds in position and 20:1 out of position. Good position will enable you to extract much more money when you hit your hand. On the other hand, if there are a number of people in the pot and it's unraised, you almost always want to limp with these hands because you're getting excellent odds. This is especially true again with weak opponents who simply cannot fold stuff like overpairs, top pairs, and weak 2 pairs.
With PP's, you don't need as good odds as you do with SC's. This is because you never have to worry about drawing - you either hit a set on the flop, or you don't. You have an 8:1 chance of hitting your set, but your set won't always win and you won't always get them all in when you hit it. On the other hand you will occaisionally be able to bluff when you're in position. I'm just going to estimate that in position you'll want something like 10:1 implied odds to play it, and out of position you'll probably need a bit more, maybe something like 15:1. Again I just pulled these numbers out of my ass but i think they seem reasonable. |