J 10 suited - leaking my money away

[Hoskinator]

This is my first post, so please go easy on me. I am a N00b and am playing 0.25/0.50 limit and have only played about 3000 hands. I am just trying to iron out my leaks and thought I should use the experience of the forum.

I have recently found myself getting frustrated with with J 10 suited. Its potentially a tasty hand, it can (but not very often for me) flop the nut straight and give you a lot of action because all the people with Aces, King and Queens go betting crazy. You also have the bonus of a potential flush and a fairly high one but one that can cost you money because it can be dominated, especially if you get four of that suit on the board.

I have been getting into trouble with this recently. It is a leak which I am now determined to right. I keep playing it no matter where I receive it. I keep finding myself in early position (s) with Jack, 10 suited. Then problems can occur because you might hit a little bit of the flop by hitting a 10 or Jack and then get suckered to stay in the hand. I forget that I am in this hand really with the intention of flopping a straight or a flush. I don't play Jack, 10 off suit much so it doesn't get me into these problems.

So what is the advice of the forum with regards to playing J 10 suited.

Basically I think I have learnt (the hard money losing way) to get a grip of myself and only play this in late position. This way I will be able to see if anyone raises the pot and not get caught limping in with it (another leak me thinks) in early position and then getting raised and cursing myself.

If you are in late position and it some raises it, so you would have pay the two raises (cold call) it to play it, or do you just muck the cards. I do muck it at the moment but I think should I see the flop because its the hands with people who are raising that I would get the most money with (Big pairs, A K etc)

also if anyone has any advice about J 10 suited and how they play it, then that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hoskinator

[fabadam]

A lot depends on table conditions.
At a tight table I'll open-raise JTs, even from EP.
At aggressive tables, I'll fold in EP, but I'll always limp along if someone called before me (I'll occasionally iso-raise very loose players).
I never coldcall with JTs.

If you hit a pair on the flop, you have to play poker. For me, that usually means I'll bet my hand at some stage and may fold if I get a lot of playback. What you should not do in general, is call down all the way, because that's a good recipe for donating lots of bets against someone who has you dominated.

[seano34]

"So what is the advice of the forum with regards to playing J 10 suited."

I am sure Im not going to be the first to say this but.....

It depends.

I'm not the best person to give advice here but your relative position and reads on other players at the table are going to be critical here.

Its a situational question - perhaps you have a hand history you could post that gave you particular trouble

[martybonus]

hoskinator,

i'll keep this brief.

fabadam's advice is sound.


basically, you want to play JTs in multiway, unraised pots where possible. JTs has very little high-card strength, so you're playing this largely for draw possibilties.

I would probably not colcall with it unless I was sure 3-4 other would coldcall as well.

Basically, you just need to pump up your discipline. If the flop isn't good to you, fold. If you hit your pair, great, play it, but if a higher card fall on the turn and you're encountering some raising, think about folding.

You play JTs like any speculative hand. ON SPECULATION. Just as you'd probably fold your 55 on a 7AJ board, you're probably folding your JT on a 3TKA board if someone raises you on the turn.

so watch your pot odds for the GSes you'll probably see and be discplined.

[OziBattler]

I pretty much agree with much of the above posts except that since you are a self confessed noob I dont recommend open-raising J10s as fabadam does because fabadam has taken his training wheels off and knows WHEN to raise J10s in EP. With 3000 hands under your belt it basically isnt time for you to take the training wheels off. I actually recommend that you just play preflop by 'the book' as that should keep you out of tough spots....

Also you probably wont get many/any spots to raise J10s in a 0,25/0.5 game...which isnt a bad thing as that means the game is nice n juicy.

gogogo

ozi

[TJO]

I've only played 12k hands. But here's my $0.02:

Since you've only played so little you really shouldn't concentrate on fixing a little leak like this. Odds of you getting dealt JTs are really small. I've only been dealt JTs 26 times during my "poker career" and I've lost some money with it. Another hand that's hard to play is QJs and especially QJo.

In an aggressive table you might be better off not playing this hand from early position. It's very good hand in multiway pots but it's not great if you are against one or two opponents.

To coldcall from late position you need to have at least 3 players in the pot before you or at least 2 loose ones. Keep that in mind.

If you want to study more about JTs do a search:
+"JTs" -"re:"

You could also download pokerstove and do some experiments with it.

[fretelöo]

[ QUOTE ]
I pretty much agree with much of the above posts except that since you are a self confessed noob I dont recommend open-raising J10s as fabadam does because fabadam has taken his training wheels off and knows WHEN to raise J10s in EP.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree. You don't need (and, as a noob, don't want) to open-raise that in a .25/.50 game. Just costs you money if you don't have a good idea what to do postflop with it.

[halpgr]

With suited high cards like JTs you want to limp in late position in a multiway unraised preflop. You want to win with pot odds to draw to a straight or flush. Not much high card strength so we wary of TPMK type hands postflop.

[nerdking]

i'll go out on a limb and say "how about OP posts some of the hands which he was concerned about so that we can critique his play"

[JerBear77]

Your questions will be answered in the HH exchanges and posting hands. Specific hands that "we" will tear apart will help you along the learning curve.

Nothing in HE is specific except for folding 72o and raising pairs bigger than Qs, everything else is EXTREMELY situational and we will do better to serve you by posting examples.

Good Luck!