Small pocket pair in early position in large tournament play.

[LouBlue]

What do you do with a small pocket pair when you're playing in a tournament? Do you just limp in? Then what do you do if the player on the button raises to 3 or 4 times the blind? Alternately, what if someone in early position bets 3.5 times the big blind and you're on the button with a pair of twos?

Let's assume it's the early round of a big tournament in which there are at least 500 players.

Oh, and do you play this any differently live than online?

(Background ... I'm going to try my hand at a pretty large online tournament tonight. Trying to avoid past pitfalls and play more conservatively in the ealry stages...)

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Bigwig]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do with a small pocket pair when you're playing in a tournament? Do you just limp in? Then what do you do if the player on the button raises to 3 or 4 times the blind? Alternately, what if someone in early position bets 3.5 times the big blind and you're on the button with a pair of twos?

Let's assume it's the early round of a big tournament in which there are at least 500 players.

Oh, and do you play this any differently live than online?

(Background ... I'm going to try my hand at a pretty large online tournament tonight. Trying to avoid past pitfalls and play more conservatively in the ealry stages...)

Thanks in advance for your input.

[/ QUOTE ]

I play them for set value early, unless I'm first in the pot in late position. Then I'm usually raising.

[Fen84]

In the early rounds your looking to play your small pocket pairs cheaply with the hope of hitting a set so I would often limp in the first five seats or so. Ideally you also want more players in the hand (limp) so you can get paid off for when you do hit your set.

As for a raise behind you after limping your going to need some implied odds, so I will tend to fold a raise of three times my limp if no one else calls the raise and it's going ot be heads up. Again you're looking to play a multi-way pot so you can get paid.

[reecelights]

In early levels:
UTG, UTG+1: Usually fold 22 & 33, limp 44-77, limp/raise 88-TT (70%/30%)
MP: limp 22-66, limp/raise 77-88 (60/40), raise/limp 99-TT (70/30)

As we hit level 3 or 4 I stop limping a lot of these and either raise or fold.

I'm looking to flop a set unless I have position and it is checked to me, then I C-Bet.

[LouBlue]

C-Bet?

[Jiggymike]

C-bet = continuation bet after flop. There are no hard and fast rules for playing pairs, just like any other situation. However when you are deep early in a tournament it is easy to see a cheap flop and hope to win a big pot with a set. Usually early on I'll limp my low pairs from most positions (unless I am in MP with 22-44 and no one has entered pot, then I will just throw it away). If there are limpers in the pot or a small raise with a few callers, I will call any pair for set value. In later position, I'm raising 77+ to try to take down the blinds although I will limp sometimes depending on the players after me, reece gives some nice breakdowns. If there are a lot of limpers, though, just limp and hope for a set at this stage of tournament. Later you have to play your pairs either more aggressively or not at all depending on stack size. If you have like 20BB, you should get rid of your small pairs save for optimal conditions (multiple limpers and you are on button) but raise your bigger pairs more aggressively. If you are really short, say 10BB, any pair is good enough to push all in.

However you will see that there will be a lot of different situations as you play more tournaments and you will have to adjust your play depending on the other players, your chips stack, the blinds, average chips stack, etc.

[Shes92]

if you are looking to play tight early in the tourney im thinking you dont want to take risks. I still think this means you can limp in early position but fold to raise if it may be heads up as you arent risking very much. It also may help you disguise a limp with a very strong hand later on.

[DPK99]

What if you are on the Button, SB, or BB, and someone raised big or goes all in with most likely unpaired cards that aren't connectors? For example, many times early on in online tourneys, it's faily easy to identify someone who likes seeing all of his chips in the pot. You know the ones, before the 5 minute mark even hits, someone went all in twice with a 10-3 and then a J5, only to get lucky and double up when someone with a better starting hand made the call.

You know your 22 is probably up against a non pair, should you call their all in?

[Jiggymike]

[ QUOTE ]
What if you are on the Button, SB, or BB, and someone raised big or goes all in with most likely unpaired cards that aren't connectors? For example, many times early on in online tourneys, it's faily easy to identify someone who likes seeing all of his chips in the pot. You know the ones, before the 5 minute mark even hits, someone went all in twice with a 10-3 and then a J5, only to get lucky and double up when someone with a better starting hand made the call.

You know your 22 is probably up against a non pair, should you call their all in?

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably not. Even aggressive players pick up good hands occassionally and it is not prudent to risk all your chips against them on a flip at best. You're better off getting HU against them with a strong hand and then sticking them for a good amount by letting him/her bet your hand or make a big mistake. If you are a very weak player, though, y our best bet may be to double up making calls like this early on.

[Cornell Fiji]

[ QUOTE ]
In early levels:
UTG, UTG+1: Usually fold 22 & 33, limp 44-77, limp/raise 88-TT (70%/30%)
MP: limp 22-66, limp/raise 77-88 (60/40), raise/limp 99-TT (70/30)[/b]

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the bold advice is very bad. The difference between 22 and 55 is very negligible. I also do not like raising with 88-JJ in ep early in tournaments.

I like to limp small pairs early in tournaments and I will call a raise with them if I am closing the action or if I can reasonably expect that I won't have a reraise behind me. I mostly play them for set value but I have become confident enough with my reads to play them for 1 pair value when the villain's betting does not make sense for a hand that has me beat