Early Tournament Play and Low Pocket Pairs.

[AkaFlash]

So here was an interesting hand early in the tournament. Full Tilt Midnight Madness $10+1

scenario:

18 hands deep. binds 20-40;

UTG (3,335) and UTG+1(1,350) limp followed by 2 folds (one LAG, and the other wildly LAG playing crap)

I'm dealt 33 (1,870) in LP make it 120 to go; UTG and UTG+1 both call

Flop: 3 J J rainbow

UTG: Check
UTG+1: Check
me: bet 40
UTG: Call
UTG+1: Raise to 580
me: Shove
UTG: Call

Turn: Q
River: 2

UTG: Jacks Full of queens
UTG+1: 44
Me: 3s full of jacks

I think I played the flop here fine, and just realize I'm willing to see if i get outdrawn if he has hit the jack on the flop. I think I'm going broke here every time especially because they both limped.

My only question here is this early in the tournament without solid reads are you raising low pocket pair in LP for set value on the flop early in the tournament?

I'm leaning towards 60% yes and 40% no on this move pre-flop.

Another interesting note. Plugging in the cards to pokerstove:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 68.328% 68.33% 00.00% 88848 0.00 { 33 }
Hand 1: 23.588% 23.59% 00.00% 30672 0.00 { QJs, QJo }
Hand 2: 08.084% 08.08% 00.00% 10512 0.00 { 44 }

I'm roughly a 3:1 favorite here given the exact cards. A lot less than what I snap shoved.

So I guess my overall analysis is that this early in the tournament I am raising 60% of the time when facing limpers behind me and hoping to hit a set on the flop.

[irishpkr]

I dont mind limping with 33, if you raise pre, you don't really get the implied odds you need. Though it has to be said, the flop bet is pretty horrible. Like I mean, disgusting But ofcourse you have to get all in with a flop that great

[st_ever]

First off if you feel your hand is worth raising then raise it up. two limps of 40 and you make it 120 that means if everyone else folds then there is 200 in the pot and 80 to call so both utg and utg+1 will call for sure. So raise 3x bb + 1 bb for every limp. Thats a good standard.

I personally would just call here. Then dump the flop unless i flop trips.

On the flop your bet of 40 is too small imo. need to bet out at least half pot. You have to protect your hand plus get maximmum value. Just try and find that happy medium. Once he raise to 580 shove is fine.

[Sydenham]

[quote=AkaFlash;19799]So here was an interesting hand early in the tournament. Full Tilt Midnight Madness $10+1

scenario:

18

I never raise with small pairs and am averse to playing them. If someone comes over the top what do you do? The only reason for playing them is that you might flop a set, and even then there is a small chance you will lose to a bigger set and therer are all sorts of draws against you.

[liladypokerpro]

I agree with the above...something so small as 33 is just asking for trouble. If you don't hit the flop (or some cases even if you do) you are putting yourself in a position to make some really tough (and most likely undisciplined) choices.

[Vito_Nuccio]

You can play the 33 many ways. The raise was fine preflop in late position, QJ should have folded. A limp is acceptable, I would probably limp more often early on and raise later in the tourney. The 40 bet after the flop was too low, it should have been 75-100% of the pot. It screamed, 'call me'.

The point is it was early in the tourney, there was no need to play the hand to the limit, but once the flop came that was it, neither of you was going to back away. You chose to play 33 and they chose to play JQ and both hands hit the flop............

Later