Big Pair vs Big Pair
Tonight at a local 2/5 game, there were 2 or 3 huge pots where 2 different players ended up all in before the flop with AA vs KK or KK vs QQ. This kind of situation is the one big way a lot of great players end up losing their money: one sick huge hand that wipes it all out in one go. Most players in this spot can’t get away from their big pair, and in a cash game it’s pretty hard to justify a fold preflop with QQ or better. But is it possible?
Yeah, sometimes it’s possible. The last time I remember folding in this type of spot recently I was put all in by an aggressive player and I was holding QQ, and I knew I probably had the best hand. I folded in this spot for strange reasons. I’d been on a bad run and my hands had not been holding up for several months and I was finally having the first winning night in a while. In that spot, with money paid in hand, I was willing to lay down the best hand in order to be able to walk away up and keep my head about myself. Yes, if I’d called I’d probably have doubled up and been even more ahead, but sometimes walking away from a good gamble is worth it in the equity it builds.
Overseas, they much less value big pairs than Americans. It’s only one pair afterall, and there are plenty of ways to lose. The reason I like (and actually prefer) to play small cards in games where I’m allowed to limp is that if I don’t flop a big hand, I can drop out with little damage, whereas with these big pairs, you’re pretty much guaranteed to play a big pot if you meet resistance. Of course, this kind of play is just a part of the game of poker, but I wonder what it’s like to think about it differently:
I wonder what would happen if a player played those big pairs like any other small pair: you hit a set on the flop or you’re out. Perhaps if we took the price tag off those monsters, and only played them for big pots when they turned into even bigger monsters, then we could minimize those sick all in before the flop beats that seem to crop up so much. I wonder how swings would be minimized.
Thoughts?
Actually, in low stakes games I tend to play large pocket pairs like mid or small pairs almost all the time. The reason for this is that you will see people flat-calling raises with such wacky hands that you’re almost certain to lose unless you flop a set. In low-limit games (2-4, 3-6, 4-8), players will flat call 2 or 3 bets with suited or connected cards quite often. In no-limit games, players will call 5+ times the BB with these same hands because they REALLY want to see the flop and hope they hit a big hand or draw.
In games like these, I like to wait on those MONSTER hands and make them pay while folding anything borderline or out of position. I can sit in a 2-4 game for 3 hours, win 4 pots, and walk out 100 bucks ahead.
some days i can play patiently like that. some days i can’t. it is nice though to only win 3-4 hands in a whole session and still come out ahead. that’s how it should be mostly.