Win Poker Strategy

In part one of the series, we talked about the unenviable position of looking down at small pocket pair in early position. You want to play the hand, but there are a lot of ugly scenarios that an inexperienced player will end up doing nothing more than donating their stack. In poker middle position is not as good as late position, but it gives you a few more options to safely save your stack or steal a pot.

Middle Position

Unlike early position, you may find that you can steal a fair amount of pots and some limper money in middle position. The further along you are the better, but there is plenty of money to be made from weak early position players.

You get your cards and you are looking down at 99. This is not a bad situation, nor is it a good one. You face a lot of possible action in front of you and have to be wary of possible traps that are getting set. Remember, a standard move under the gun with AA or KK is to limp in and wait for the raise. When someone does this, they come right back over the top and try to get you to commit your stack. This is something you want to watch out for as you get aggressive with your 99. Stop and realize what is happening before you fall for the usual impulse of shoving and giving them exactly what they want.

First scenario has a couple of players limping in and the betting getting to you. This is a great position to be in as you can make an aggressive play and try and take the pot down right away. Make a 6 or 7x blind raise and see what happens. If someone comes over the top, you are probably dead and may want to let the hand go right there. If they are only doubling your bet, you can call them and see what happens on the flop. Realize you are begging for a 2 outer here and pretty much kissing that money goodbye.

Now if you get callers, watch the board. You are going to be committed to a continuation bet as long as you don’t see 2 or 3 face cards out there. If they bet out, they have probably hit and you may have to let the hand go. If they call you and there is no draw, you are probably dead and will hope they check the turn to you and you can check down and hope to improve on the river. If there is a draw on the table, you are going to have to proceed aggressively and risk losing some serious cash. People on flush draws will donate a ton of cash on that chase so make them pay and hope that they don’t suck out on you.

Your second scenario is a small raise in front of you. This is a perfect time to call and disguise your hand and see what hits the board. If you get a low board, you can come right over top of them after their continuation bet. If it is a high board and they bet out, you can let it go and keep your losses to a minimum.

The final scenario is when the betting folds around to you and you are first man in. Now it is time to represent and make a play at the blinds. You can throw out a 5 or 6x the blinds bet and represent a much larger hand than you actually have. You are not necessarily looking for callers here as the board can lead to trouble. Once again though, you are all but committed to a continuation bet unless a seriously dangerous board hits you.

Always keep in mind that money you are investing in small pocket pairs is money that you need to be prepared to let go of at any moment. Standing your ground in a bad position is what will cause you to go broke. You are looking to scoop blinds and hit sets with small pocket pairs. If you play them properly from middle position, they can be great money makers. Just don’t get married to them and refuse to dump. There are no bad folds, just bad calls!