how do you guys play small/medium pocket pairs before the flop? will you always call a medium sized raise, or are there spots where you will fold to a 6X big blind bet? im really not sure how to play these, any help would be much appreciated

It depends.

Seriously.

Way to vague to answer.

Poker is situational.

Post specific hands in the appropriate forum.

i realize its a vague question. i was just wondering if there is any rule of thumb, or anything like that

There are no rules of thumb in poker.

This is why we say "do not ask vague, unanswerable questions".

Why?

Cuz I said so?



Just because, it's an exercise in futility to try to assign a preset series of rules to poker. Every single hand is different, and should be approached as such.

Especially because I'm certain OP is talking about NLHE.

Also, the fact that he even failed to enlighten us to which poker game he was talking about makes me think that he's narrowminded, or new to the game, and looking for that get rich quick thing, and a preset strategy that just doesn't exist. (This makes no sense to anyone but me because I worded it poorly... it's not an insult towards OP or anyone.)

i play .25/.50 NL on pokerstars, full ring. it was just a question, no need to jump down my throat and make assumptions about my game. we can just end this thread here, im clearly not going to get an answer. maybe this is because there is no answer, or because it varies too much. thanks anyway tho

That's my point.

There is no answer because every situation is independent.

fair enough, thanks for your input

Ok, to clear it up.

You "could" come up with some set rules, but it would be selling yourself significantly short.

Therefore, I tend to push the situational thing.

It'll only take away from your development as a poker player to try to play by certain preset rules.

I generally make sure they have 15-20 times the bet size to call the raise. I hate folding pairs preflop, I generally don't do it unless someone goes allin

I think that is what you are looking for, but as Zach so astutely pointed out that is just a vague guideline.

Hypothetically, if you made it a rule to always shove when you are facing one raise of 3 x the BB and you had enough chips to possibly induce a fold.

What would the possible outcomes be or is this just a retarded question?

Discuss

Well, it's certainly not unforseable that a certain "fixed" set of rules could produce a +EV return, however, my point is that it's almost certainly not going to produce the optimal result.

I don't think there are any retarded questions. Some just are no answerable.

I agree that it may not produce an optimal result in the long run.

If you take a look at the SAGE theory though, that is based on certain "fixed" criteria and is expected to produce optimal results.

This is of course counting on the fact that both players are abiding by these rules.

If the object of Poker is too make money, isn't any strategy that has a guaranteed +ev be the optimal one.

If we treat every situation differently doesn't that significantly impact that % of time we are correct?

While on some situations we may be more +ev (Does that make sense) other times wouldn't we be losing money?

Never worked in customer service eh?

Put it this way. If everyone limps in and you have a pocket pair....always raise it up to see where everyone really is. If anyone goes over the top all in....then lay it down. If not...you get your callers and see the flop. Once the flop comes (if you miss your card)...you fire another continuation bet...that must be big enough to represent a huge overpair. At that point it you see where your opponents are. However, it is situational because you don't know how they will react to your raises...but you still want to raise to see and then react to their responses.

multiple optimal strategies.

okey dokey

lol, actually I did.

Zach likes to use big words

Biggest problem with the OP - it doesn't say whether we're talking about ring games or tournaments.

Also, who opens to 6x in a cash game online?

Calling 10% of your stack to hit a set is -EV against any opponent.

Calling 5% is usually +EV against most opponents.

I try to limp and I will call for less than 7 percent of my chips.

Can you please stop bumping old *** threads?

Seriously.

Thank you.

i think someone is trying to make a rush for 200.

I wonder why?

I forget where but I heard the rule of 5 and 25. This applies to the tournament setting, if you've got 25xBB or more, limp in with low pocket pairs <99, if you're 5xBB or less, shove, anywhere inbetween just fold. Of course if you're last to act you might be able to call into a multiway pot for set value, but generally just stick to the rule.

A little input on tourney strategy for middle pocket pairs. I believe I read somewhere the Scott Fischman prefers to limp them almost every time as long as the limp only represents a small portion of his stack...something 4 percent or less I believe. He prefers this strat because it represents too much of his stack to raise, get reraised, and then have to call. Instead he elects to limp call a raise. I agree with this.