Low Pairs

Have you ever seen where everyone is just posting the big blind, with few raisers,and all of a sudden, someone pushes their stack of 700 all-in? Then everyone folds in turn. You make some comment to yourself like, “What an idiot. I hope someone calls him next time and gets him out.”

What was actually happening, most likely, is that he had a pair. Maybe a “high pair”. In this case probably JJ, TT, or 99, or maybe AK. I would say most of the time that is the case. Rare is the case that someone would “waste” AA, KK, or QQ with just the possibility of raking the blinds.

AA, KK and QQ hold their value regardless of how many people are in at the river. Think about it. If you have AA, and nothing but rags come up, as long as the board doesn’t pair low, you have the winning hand. Same with KK, or QQ.

If the community cards come in high, you have most all hands beat. The exceptions, of course, are when you have KK, or QQ and an ace is on the board. You know you are behind. But, if you catch your K or Q, you will most likely win the hand.

High pairs are good hands, and as explained above, if bet correctly pre-flop, should only be up against other decent hands. It is rare when you bet up 125 on KK, and someone calls with AA. More often, players call you with Ax or Kx suited looking more for the flush.

Although there was one time that I was short-stacked, and went all-in with QQ pre-flop. Three others went all-in also pre-flop. As we revealed, one had AA, the next had KK, and lastly the other guy had AK. I was amazed, but happy I still had my 2 outs in the deck, whereas, AA knew he wouldn’t get any better. Nobody caught anything, as you’d expect, and I was out. So it does happen. It’s just not very likely. 

With pairs JJ on down, throwing it all-in is a pretty good way to make at least the blinds, and maybe double-up.

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For example:

Say you have 55, pocket 5’s. (P5’s) It gets to you, and you go all-in. Most of the time, everyone will fold. You then rake the blinds and whoever called the blinds. But, if someone calls, you have an instant showdown.

In this case, lets say you raised in early position and the guy behind you called your all-in with AA. You think you are dead. He thinks you are dead. This is not the case at all. At this point, all he has is the “tie” if nobody catches anything. You have absolutely the same odds of making trips as he has of catching a 3rd ace. That’s a coin flip.

So, you think, since there are still 5 cards to be revealed, you only have 2 cards in 48 to beat the AA. That’s about a 4% chance, impossible. Not so. You still have 5 draws at that 4% chance with every card that ISN’T a 5 making your percentages better. 

You also have to take the board into consideration and your suits. If either, or both, of your 5’s are different suits than his aces, you can win with a flush if 4 of your suited cards come up. Also, pre-flop, you have a much better chance at a straight than AA.

With 5’s, you are the high card in A-5, the low card in a 5-9, and the middle card on all straights in between. You have 5 straight possibilities. With AA, he only has two straight possibilities, and if you have 55, his low straight has to be perfect. The only cards on the table could be 2 3 4 5 and one other, non-pairing card.

Or the board could create a straight, or a flush, and you’d split. Say, 7-J, or 8-Q. Or any straight, really, as long as you or he weren’t the only owner of the straight. So, you aren’t dead by any means, pre-flop.

But, if you play this correctly, you won't be up against those top hands. Now I will explain the correct way to play with this strategy.

First off, I wouldn’t do this with, say, 44, 33, or 22. First because of the limited straight possibilities, but mostly because everything that anyone calls with will be higher than your cards. This doubles his chances of catching his card.

JJ, TT, 99 are great hands to do this with. The correct way to do this is in late position, preferably on the button. That way, you get to see if anyone gives the Big Blind a good raise, or if someone else goes all in. That way, you can decide to play the convetional way or not.

A great time to do it is in late position with 4 or 5 callers to the big blind, or small raises. Then you just go all-in, they fold it up, and you rake it without showing what you had. Now they don’t know if you just burned an AA hand, or bluffed with 72 off suited.

The second time you do it, you will most likely get a caller; just to see what hand you think is worth such a raise. The second or third time is a really good time to do it with AA, or KK, or QQ. You will most likely beat whatever they call you with, and the others at the table will likely assume that’s how you always play those pairs, and try to avoid you.

That works out great for the end game with huge blinds.

What you are looking for, if played correctly, is someone with a lower pair than you that knows this little trick. He’s taking his coin flip shot to double up, and more power to him. Just hope he doesn’t get lucky.

More often your callers will be folks trying to limp in AK/AK suited, AQ/AQ suited, and AJ/AJ suited that didn’t want to bet, but have decent hands. Especially if their suit comes up. In a loose game, or if someone is short-stacked, you will see callers with Ax suited.

If you do this with JJ, TT or 99, hopefully their off card is lower than your pair. To beat you, he is basically down to 3 cards. This is why I advise against doing this with really low pairs, like 44, 33, and 22.

If, say, you were all in with 44, and a short-stack calls with A5 suited, he’s still going to need to get some luck, but his odds are doubled. He’ll have 6 cards against your 2. Plus, he’ll have the flush draw, and the straight draw. I don’t really like your chances in that case.

If you were all-in with, say, 7’s, he has to pair his top card which is 3 cards to your 2, so about the same odds. In that case, I’d be more worried about the flush. More often than not, when you do this, and are called, it will be against someone with an ace, and suited or someone with a pair.

Fortunately, most of the time you do this, it won’t be called at all, and you can rake in the pot. That’s why I usually won’t do it until the blinds at an SNG are up to 50 and above. That way, if all you collect are the blinds, you are still making 75, and people think you are an idiot and can’t play.

Where this works best is at the higher blinds, say 100 or 200, and you are shortstacked, but not low enough to get 5 callers. Say, the blinds are 100 and you only have
400. Go all in. In this case, regardless of position. Hopefully in late position where one or 2 other guys only called the BB. That way, if everyone folds, you have the 2 calls, the SB and the BB. That’s 350. You basically doubled up without having to show a card. If only all poker were that easy.

Usually, when you are the short-stack, folks want you out. Some people take pride in how many folks they eliminated. I don’t get that. It must be an ego thing. I take pride in playing well and winning money. Everyone could knock each other out as long as I’m left standing for all I care.

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You will get these “Samaritans” that want to do the table a favor and rid the rest of your presence. Usually the large stack playing loose. You go all in with your 400 chips, which are a deterrent to someone holding on with 1200 or so, but if a guy has 3000, it is only an annoyance, and he calls. This is what you want. More often than not, these “Samaritans” will try to put you out with just about anything.

I saw a guy today try to do it with Q 5 off suited. The guy short stacked had 9’s and it was no contest. These guys get a bit loose just trying to rid the table of the short stack, but what they actually do is double them up. If you are the big stack, don’t be that guy. Let them earn their way back in the hard way. Or call if you have something decent. Heck, even any flush draw, with an A or K, is okay to call against a pair pre-flop.

I guess that that is enough about the game of pre-flop poker. You now know your hands, the ranking of the hands, and you have a good idea of your chances of winning with those hands. If you only play good hands, you have a much better chance of winning.

Now I will move on to your odds of winning with your hand post-flop.

Enjoy your game!