When it comes to Jack's I feel like Im not playing them right. I'll give my two hands I played recently. Feel free to also mentioned your previous Jack hands as well.

1/3
Hero ($150) UTG 20s African American/Asian female. New to poker but plays regularly. Learning new strategies everyday. On this table she is seen as a LAG.

Villian #1 UTG+1 ($70-90) 60s caucasian man. he tends to do block bets of $7-10 even though he's short stack.

Villian #2 ($350) MP; MAWG. He's a tight player but can get agressive once he hits his hand. Slow play isn't his thing

Hero has the red Jack's JJ

Hero limps with the intention to reraise

Villian #1 makes it $12, Villian #2 snap calls, folded to Hero with ($28) dollars in the pot

Hero makes it $60

Villian #1 quickly folded

Villian #2 was very very hesitant but folded as well.

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1/3

Hero(CO): Same description as above but now she is has ($130). This is a totally different table/ casino from the description above

Villian #1($150) MP: 60s Caucasian male. conservative player. Hasn't been in much hands besides a limp pot when he's the blinds.

2 limpers and Villian one makes it $15. folded to Hero who has J J who makes it $40. villian calls

Flop ($84-rake) 258

Villian reluctantly checks, Hero goes all in.

Villian looks at the Hero in the eyes for the longest time ever then folds. ( Idk why he did that when Im wearing sunglasses)

But anyways in the 1st post was $60 too much?

And was the reraise preflop unnecessary?

Would Also like to hear stories of previous Jack's hands you guys have played as well.

H1:

Love our limp/reraise plan.

With these effective stacks and this relatively decent dead money, I just ship it preflop.

I have no idea how much JJ makes on average, but I'll guess it makes no where close to $28 (9.33 bbs) per hand. If this is all we ever did with JJ, we'd be making a killing, imo.


H2:

Against a conservative player who has raised 2 limpers, I think I'm more for just flatting preflop. This will likely invite the others in and we have a decent setmining opportunity. Plus we'll be in position where we'll have a decent chance of figuring out postflop if we're good UI.

As played, with only a PSB left on this flop I don't see how we could do anything else but ship.

GcluelessNLnoobG

For the #1 hand someone commented that $60 was too much of a reraise for a 1/3 table. But I was more thinking of the pot as well as gurantee to see the board.

I feel that if I made it a little less like $35-45 I wouldnt be in a good position on the flop as Im first to act and any higher face cards or even if someone called that raise with 99 10s and made a set on a flop.

For Jack's do we want to be called?? Or is it one of those hands you wouldn't want to go to showdown with?

Sounds like you might be a little noobish to the game? If so, you're likely better off ending most hands preflop with your big hands, and the best way to do this is limp/reraise and simply take down all the huge dead money preflop (which in my game would also be unraked). Just keep in mind that if the hand does limp around to play very cautiously postflop (and don't look to get in big money multiway unless you make a set).

GimoG

First order of business: never listen to "strategy" commentary at the table from 1/3 live players. They don't have the slightest clue on, well, basically anything.

$60 was fine if you plan to ship every flop. I would've just jammed pre. But no way should you go less than 60.

Don't understand why someone would recommend to a new player that they play their big hands preflop in way that gives them the best chance of taking down the pot before the flop. It's not difficult to grasp why you shouldn't get married to an over-pair & should be one of the first poker axioms a player should subscribe to.

The way you played it worked out great, as you got a raise & did not have a large enough stack to be concerned about getting in preflop or on a good flop.

Hand 1: With 50BB limp/raise with JJ from EP is good. You are ahead of all but the most absurdly light ranges. $60 is at the big end of sizing but OK once the original bet gets a call.

Hand 2: Looks fine. $40 is at the bottom of sizing here because there are 2 limpers before the raise but stack sizes make it fine. You will either be shoving the flop or giving up.

With stacks under 50BB JJ is a value hand preflop but it's going to be very high variance. Most of your profit will come from hands where you bet/raise and everybody folds preflop, if you get action you are usually coin flipping or behind. As stacks hit 100BB+ it's no longer always a value hand, you have to pick your spots because the price you pay when somebody has a higher pair won't cover the profits from the many small pots you win. Post flop you are in much the same situation. They are usually too good to just fold but often have trouble getting action from worse hands or folding better hands. You are ahead slightly more often then not but if opponents are willing to put much money in the pot this is no longer true.

Also, in general don't pay much attention to commentary at the table. The bad players don't know what they are doing, the good ones are not really trying to help anybody and a lot of the advice is aimed more at manipulating people then anything.

Both look good to me even though I rarely, if ever, LRR hands since I prefer to play postflop poker. But given you are new to the game, it is a completely acceptable way to play until you get more comfortable.

I just open raise them to 10bb pre. Ez game.

Limp/reraise seems silly, just open as normal.

Hand 2, bet smaller on the flop.

Don’t play short stacked if you can afford it.

Here's a JJ hand I butchered a long time ago.

Villain is young, wealthy Middle Eastern guy has 40k. He's been at the table about 3 orbits when this hand came up.

Relevant history.
There was a limped pot with about 5 players to the flop. Board was A 9 6 checked around, turn was 7 and someone bet 1/3 pot, call, and villain raised fairly big. Everyone folded and he showed T7s.

I had AQo UTG and raised 150, he called and button called. Flop was A x x. I bet and he called, button folded. Turn was X. I checked and he checked back. River was Q and I bet out close to pot and he called after some thought and showed AJ.

Effective stacks about $8500.
Hero has JJ UTG.
PF: Hero makes it 150, Villain calls, Button calls, BB calls.

Flop(625): Js 8d 5d
Hero bets 425, Villain calls, rest fold.

Turn(1475): 3c
Hero checks, Villain thinks for a bit and then checks back.

River(1475): 7h
Hero bets 1250, Villain thinks for about 20 seconds and makes it 4800....

I think your betting preflop and flop was fine. However, sets always get me in trouble with straight draws :/ but it would be ridiculous if he called an early UTG raise with 9/5 or 10/9 . Especially if you are seen as tight...he probably has the other J though or a pair of 8s. As played. I would have reluctantly called

I dont agree with much that GG says as our strategies are totally different, but this is 100% correct. Could OP have made more with JJ than she did with the limp/reraise? Maybe. Maybe she makes more. Maybe she loses a big pot by playing differently. We dont know what the other players had or what the board was going to be.

One thing is for sure, the average amount of money made per hand with JJ is less than 9.33BBs. If you can take down that much money preflop with no flop and no risk of being outplayed or being out flopped its a win. More money, less variance.

Hand 1 I raise pre and with these stack sizes if I did l/rr I'd ship. It's close though.

Hand 2 is good. Villain 95% had a hand like AQ, missed completely and stared at you for ages just to let you know he wasn't going to be pushed around and you're getting lucky this time when he lets you have the pot. You see this kind of needless timewasting BS all the time.

My tip to play JJ is to get a AJ7 two tone flop.

You ever heard the phrase “results oriented” before?

I guess you missed the point.

1/3 NL. Effective stacks ~300. Typical 1/3 table.

Hero UTG+1 JJhs

Pre-flop: UTG folds, hero raises to $15. 4 callers including BB

Flop $75: K88. BB checks, hero checks, Villain bets $35, Another villain calls, BB calls, hero folds.

Easy, typical JJ hand.

Yea that's a terrible flop for Jack's. 4 callers with that flop is not good. I would have folded as well.