Quote:
Originally Posted by Square Rounder
I think you are mistaking my motivations. It is not that I am at all optimistic about anything if we proceed past the flop. JJ is a potential poison pill in this hand. It is just good enough to stack off with. That is where my preference to end the hand pre flop comes from, so that is why I can not bring myself to stomach a call. The 3bet has the best chance of ending the hand, with the folds I want or the 4bet that lets me know I am no good. The last thing I want to do is walk the minefield that any flop will be. So, if I must walk that minefield, I only want to do it in position and with the lead against as few hands as possible.
So often I hear folks at the table say, I hate jacks.
Me, I LOVE jacks. I'll take jacks every hand. But In a raised pot, I play them much like twos or other small pocket pairs. Because, to my mind, if there's been a raise, jacks become a small pair. I definitely want to see flops, esp in position, but I can fold jacks post flop if any over card comes. I don't ever want to get wedded to them and I don't care if I get bluffed off them in a small pot.
So here, I'd just call preflop. If we flop an over pair to the board, we can play poker and we can use position and reads to make decisions. There's no reason to blindly go broke with jacks. If we flop a set, we play it like the nuts. If over cards come, I just muck.
I don't three bet jacks, typically, because if opponents play back and four bet, their range is now AA, KK, QQ and AK, and I'm not faring well against that range. I'd rather keep the pot smaller preflop, see a flop and go from there. If I raise to 30 with JJ, and V 4!, it's a fold. I don't want to get raised off this hand preflop.
With position, in a hand with a raise and callers, when stacks are relatively deep, I flat jacks and see a pot. If the action is limped to me I raise jacks. If I am first in the pot, I usually raise jacks, once in a while flat for deception. If I have jacks and there's a raise and callers and I am short stacked, I might jam jacks preflop, or if there's a raise and no callers and V is short stacked, I might raise enough to put V all in.
A set of jacks unimproved can never be the nuts on the river, (always either a higher set or a possible straight) so even when you flop hard, the hand requires some thought.
I might be very wrong but I think that if you rarely 3! JJ preflop, you're probably not making a big mistake. With stacks deep enough to set mine, just calling with JJ is my preference in most cases.
Last edited by Dutchstreetfish; 03-13-2015 at 07:53 AM.
Reason: Typo