Playing 10,10 in early position

[greekgooner]

Hi

Finally decided to post a question as its really bugging me what to do.

Is it better to raise 3/4 times the big blind and hope to take the blinds or limp and hope to see a cheap flop? Personally I think limping and calling a raise is the better option having the ability to fold to any overcards on the flop. Anyone calling a raise from early postion is surely going to have higher cards. I guess though it leaves the possibility of losing a lot of chips if the caller hits the flop harder than you.

[Niediam]

A lot of people raise any pair UTG.

And you become very readable if the only hands you are raising in EP are QQ+ and AK.

But really you should probably just do whatever you feel comfortable with for now (as long as you don't fold!) and then as your game developes you can experiment with some alternate lines.

[thrasher789]

limit or NL? Really it is just going to matter how the other players are playing but generally you raise this and find out quick if you're beat or in a flip with someone in later position.

[Ender1553]

A lot of the stuff I've read has said (if you're playing tight) to not raise with 1010 UTG. , but Niediam is absolutely correct w/ readability... So i'd reccommend you call 75% of the time and raise the other 25 to make it harder to read (or like what was said before, what you feel comfortable with).

[Fantam]

The reason for raising with TT is because your hand will hold up much better against 1 or 2 opponents than it will against say 3 or 4 or more limpers.

If you limp, and get a lot of other limpers then you are hoping to make a set, unless the flop comes all undercards.

If you raise, you may get a hand like AK calling, which you would still be a favourite over heads up.

I would always raise pf with TT, but I think that Niedam has offered some good advice, in recommending to do what you feel with comfortable with until you gain more playing experience.

[thrasher789]

Exactly, in the end I raise TT almost everytime becuase your only an underdog to AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and your a slight advantage to AK-AJ. If playing out of position bothers you and you're again'st some tough opponents maybe you should fold it but if you're opponents are weak or you can get a read on them raising TT UTG and EP is +EV in the long run.

[PantsOnFire]

The action you can take with TT in early position is really quite wide.

I use the conditions of the game I'm in to determine what to do. For example, in a loose, passive/aggressive rebuy tourney, I will probably limp and call one raise. I have stopped raising pf with 99-JJ in these games because there are always 3-4 callers and usually an overcard or two. I play 99-JJ for set value in these situations and that usually means limping or overcalling one raise.

In a very tight, aggressive game, I will definitely raise TT and probably around my standard raise size for that game.

Against unknowns or an average game in a deep stack situation, I might try a small raise like 2x or 2.5x. This will sometimes throw people off. In later hands, you can raise the same amount with a speculative hand or AA depending on how people reacted to your small UTG raise.

In a very loose aggressive game, this hand might be a candidate for a limp, re-raise if you can be sure to either catch a maniac with a low pair or Arag.

Finally, your play will depend a lot on how deep you and your opponents are. There is a world of difference between a 200BB stack in a cash game and a 16BB stack in a tourney.