So I have been going through HEM2 and was a little bit shocked when I saw the following:

Low pairs (22,33,44,55,66) | 992 hands | -5,77 bb/100
Medium pairs (77,88,99,TT)| 821 hands | -0,67 bb/100
Big pairs (JJ,QQ,KK) | 608 hands | +470,23 bb/100
AA | 197 hands | +510,20 bb/100 hands

I have always thought that you should be a winner with any pair overall in 6max... The big pairs and AA are fine I guess but the low pp's and especially the medium pp's are a big shock. How can I break even with medium pp's??

When I break them down into positions I get this:





What can I do about this? I guess it will be a good idea to drop every low pair except in the CO or BTN (but then I would only use these pairs to steal or to ocasionally setmine against very bad opponents). But should I also drop medium pairs in the blinds? Any advice is really appreciated.


BTW, It's only about bb/100 hands. $$$ ia not relevant because these hands are played over different levels: 2NL, 5NL and 10NL

F2012, small pocket pairs aren't always going to be profitable. You'll only ever flop a set ever 8.5 times you have a small PP, and even then it's not guaranteed that you'll win your opponents stack.

Things to consider:

- don't be afraid to X/F as the PFR aggressor in places you won't be getting any folds/value. This will mostly apply against fish, which are everywhere in the micros.

- Versus competent regs, if such a thing exists at <10nl, you shouldn't always set mine. Folding to a button open in the blinds with a small pocket pair is fine. This is especially true as against competent regs they're very unlikely to pay you off when you do hit your set.

Those two points should help immensely. People overplay small pocket pairs as though they're always going to be the nuts. It's just not true.

I actually lol'd when I clicked the picture and saw the sample size.

Although I can tell you that you're calling too much in the BB w/****ty PP's.

Ty, will def be folding more blinds from now on. But does this count for med pairs too? I feel like I x/f too many flops with them when I'm OOP or try to float OOP, neither are working very good as can be seen.


yeah lol sample size, but as you already pointed out ("Although I can tell you that you're calling too much in the BB w/****ty PP's.") this def raises some flags.

1 - You need to understand your ranges in spots and villains ranges and their tendencies. I dunno what stakes you're playing but I'd assume you're still playing against people who on average are far too passive, this is awful for when we are set mining because we don't have the implied odds that they are going to barrel. So instead of being like fold more you should work on understanding why you are doing each and it'll sort itself out.

I assume you understand why we can see in our stats that we are calling too much (for example) yet this doesn't mean we should fold more in every spot.

I do agree about your x/f flops from that 99 hand highlighted where you have raised SB vs BB, called a raise and then folded one of the driest flops you could have hoped for. Definitely not good.

2 - This is just because it stands out quite a bit, just be careful you aren't trying to make big adjustments based on trivial sample sizes was more the point.

All pp's should be profitable at these levels I think. I have about the same sample size and 44 is the only pair that has negative all-in adjusted results. And that's probably because I've been set over setted 3 times, while I never managed to get stacks in when I had the only set with 44. Over a small sample such things will decide your winrate. You could also check your set-flopping frequency. Over a small sample that may be way off, which will have a huge effect on your winrate.

My overall VPIP with any pair is 97%, 96% with 22-66, so I play them even more than you do.

Comparing to your stats, it seems it could be a lot variance. With medium pairs I have the exact same WTSD as you, while my W$SD is 10% higher.

You are 3betting medium pairs a lot on the button. I guess this is TT? Why? Seems to me you are folding out most hands that we have crushed, get 4bet by those that crush us and get a call from the hands we are flipping against. I rather keep their A8s in there and let them flop tp.

Post my AF and AFq% is quite a bit higher than yours.

H1 - Wanted to play with a fish in the blinds, so just flatted.
H2 - What size do we open with bvb ? I 3x from all positions, 2.5x from button and 2x from SB.

Is obv ok if ur pfr to play with a fish with weaker holdings, but u cannot match a utg range of a non-fish.

I open 3x everywhere except btn where I open 2.5x, unless there's a fish in blinds abs I go back to 3x if he's calling a lot pre.

Don't think of SB as such a stealing spot. It is, but don't lay villain excellent odds to call with such a wide range. I read a lot on this at one point and I think mathematically it would be correct for villain to call a minbet from SB with like 40% of hands or something like that

So we open 2.5x from SB as well ?

And stop sitting on my left every time.

@TDA

H1 - Seems ok, but would you do the same with KK/AA here ? What about QQ ?
H3 - Raise turn to build pot ? Or did you have some read that BB was very likely to raise here ?


@F2012

I think you are 3betting way too much with low pocket pairs.
Also, you are not aggressive enough with medium pocket pairs.

Yeah was gonna ask if that was you!

I'd advocate opening to at least 3x in SB. You can even make it 4x which I've heard some people say. Guess as usual it depends on who BB is

What opening range do we have if we open to 3x in SB ? This is also another problem I have, what range to open from SB and what range to call from BB, what range to defend vs BB's 3bet etc. Assume villain is a standard 22/18/6 player.

Tough question and I'm certainly not qualified to answer with any certainty. Have a look at the cotw threads on blind play first, then just have a think about it I guess and do some work in pokerstove. Nor trying to be evasive, I just can't explain it very well, and considering how I'm playing at the moment I wouldn't really wanna send u down the wrong path if I'm wrong!

On that note will be playing a sesh fri night, then having the weekend off. Mainly coz I'm on a stag weekend but also think my game/mindset will benefit from a little time away

I will hopefully have tonnes of free time from Monday and I'll get down to the studying and math in earnest.

Yeah I know, Pre' is pretty bad.
My image definitely helped me later on though.








Ship it.


Anyway, I've been mixing up NLHE with some PLO. I really need to stay away from PLO for now though. Really not the greatest of help for the bankroll it would seem.

You make this GIF yourself? They are pretty funny hahaha!

I don't make the gifs myself, no. :P Just search Tumblr for them mostly.

agree with dunna in that you should be opening 3x vs most in the SB. I'd 2.5x vs nits since there range is usually inelastic. I open about 45% in the SB as a standard which is slightly less than my button opening range.

@ oly yeah that KJo is a flat pre.

Watching Premier League Poker. It's amazing how **** some of these players are (see: Sexton, Frankenberger in particular).

Re H1, afterward I thought that this might be the case but I've been trying to be really tight around which hands I am willing to be AIPF with. In the small sample I had on villain, I believe that was the 4th time I'd seen him do that. Oh well - I'll keep that in mind for the future.

H2 .. yikes, embarrassing. I don't even know where that came from. Oops! My thinking matched yours here so I'm glad to see a fold wasn't completely uncalled for.

H3, I do pull the donk/3bet move at times but also pull a X/R every now and then. Would you mind commenting on the merits of that in this situation? Is it more or less identical? I suppose in the donk/3bet situation you are guaranteeing more money goes into the pot (along with the possibility of villain folding).

Thanks for your help with these hands.

Donking is usually better on boards where people are less inclined to Cbet.

Will be 3xing from sb from now.

I dont think I ever donk otf. Is that a leak ?

^^ yep definitely. I don't do it enough either.

The turn and river hates me.

h1: Limp/call pre is often a small or mid pp, most pp's are floating paired boards and a lot of pp's are ahead of me on the turn. Continue betting?

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $1.36 (VPIP: 37.50, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
SB: $1.08 (VPIP: 17.42, PFR: 16.85, 3Bet Preflop: 5.08, Hands: 187)
BB: $1.00 (VPIP: 21.82, PFR: 10.91, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 58)
UTG: $1.72 (VPIP: 16.19, PFR: 10.31, 3Bet Preflop: 1.26, Hands: 469)
MP: $1.27 (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
Hero (CO): $3.52

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has 5 5

fold, MP calls $0.02, Hero raises to $0.08, fold, fold, fold, MP calls $0.06

Flop: ($0.19, 2 players) 5 8 8
MP checks, Hero bets $0.12, MP calls $0.12

Turn: ($0.43, 2 players) 8
MP checks, Hero checks

River: ($0.43, 2 players) T
MP bets $0.22, Hero calls $0.22




h2: gotta fold that river, I suppose...

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): $2.00
SB: $3.75 (VPIP: 4.17, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)
BB: $1.57 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
UTG: $1.29 (VPIP: 12.77, PFR: 4.26, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 49)
MP: $2.00 (VPIP: 13.07, PFR: 9.87, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 154)
CO: $1.74 (VPIP: 11.88, PFR: 1.98, 3Bet Preflop: 1.47, Hands: 207)

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has 7 J

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.06, SB calls $0.05, BB calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.18, 3 players) J 7 K
SB bets $0.04, BB calls $0.04, Hero raises to $0.23, SB calls $0.19, fold

Turn: ($0.68, 2 players) J
SB checks, Hero bets $0.44, SB calls $0.44

River: ($1.56, 2 players) K
SB bets $3.02 and is all-in, fold

SB wins $1.51

BTN: $29.16 - VPIP: 15, PFR: 15, 3B: 10, AF: 3.0, Hands: 20
SB: $30.46 - VPIP: 14, PFR: 11, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 56
BB: $13.74 - VPIP: 18, PFR: 9, 3B: 8, AF: 4.0, Hands: 34
UTG: $26.07 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 13, 3B: 3, AF: 1.8, Hands: 1166
Hero (MP): $29.61
CO: $28.06 - VPIP: 42, PFR: 29, 3B: 20, AF: 6.0, Hands: 31

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP with A A
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, 1 fold, BTN raises to $2, 2 folds, Hero raises to $4.90, BTN calls $2.90

Flop: ($10.15) 6 7 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.80, BTN calls $3.80

Turn: ($17.75) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $6.70, BTN raises to $20.46, Hero calls $13.76

River: ($58.67) 8 (2 players)

Final Pot: $58.67
BTN shows 9 Q
Hero shows A A
BTN wins $56.67
(Rake: $2.00)
I have to keep telling myself "these are the people I make money off". So terrible...