Struggling with high PP's

[Teddie]

I never quite seem to know how to properly play pocket pairs like J's and Q's. Heres an example of what i usually do.

Ipoker Lavender 0.01/0.02, hand converted by the iPoker Converter at Talking-Poker

9 (Button) Button ($2.77)
10<font color="red">Hero ($0.67) </font>
2 Seat 2 ($1.67)
3 Seat 3 ($2.05)
5 <font color="red">Seat 5 ($1.81) </font>
6 Seat 6 ($1.06)
7 Seat 7 ($1.50)

Preflop: Hero is in seat 10 with J J
Seat 3 raises to 0.08, Seat 5 calls 0.08, 1 fold, Seat 7 calls 0.08, 1 fold, Hero calls 0.07, 1 fold.

Flop (0.34) 3 7 7
Hero moves all-in for 0.59, 1 fold, Seat 5 calls 0.59, 1 fold.

Turn (1.52) K

River (1.52) 9

Seat 5 shows K K
Hero shows J J

Seat 5 wins 1.52 with A fullhouse, King's and Seven's


At first i thought i played it fine, and it was just unlucky. However the more i thought about it, the more i realised its properly poor play on my part. In this case all-in had to be done due to my stack size but even if i had $2 i still used to push all-in.

I realised that the only people calling me are idiots with Air, or people who have me beaten. So i am wondering what size bet should i be looking at after the flop?

In th above example what should i make my bet? Some with two over cards is about a 3-1 chance to hit on the turn or river arent they?

Also - what should i do if the flop contains a A,K or Q check, or put in one c-bet?

[whickerda]

You didn't play too horribly. I have a couple of suggestions though. In this spot:
a. Raise preflop. Your going to be OOP the rest of the way. You want to know if any of your opponents really has a hand or not. If you get reraised reevaluate based on your read of the raiser. However, in .01/.02 are you going to lay down jacks preflop?
b. Yes, c-bet the flop. You need to find out where you are. However, your push on the flop is a large overbet. There's .34 in the pot. If you bet, say .25 and get called, you may save yourself .34 when the K hits on the turn. Remember, any money not lost in a hand spends just as well as money won.

[Harv72b]

With your stack size, any meaningful bet that you make on the flop commits you. So yeah, because you were so short-stacked at the start of the hand you pretty much had to either push the flop or check/fold it.

Jacks and queens are inherently difficult hands to play, and anyone from a beginning player to a top pro will tell you as much. This hand is a perfect example of why they're so difficult--you will so often get what appears to be a "safe" flop, but still run into a better hand. Many people will tell you to either treat them like a medium pair &amp; play for set value (more so JJ than QQ), or else put in a 3bet preflop and fold to a 4bet/push depending on the player &amp; stack sizes. I'm not nearly a good enough NL player to speculate on which method is better.