How you should play small pairs is mostly dependent on your stack size and the effective stack size in the hand; that is, the smaller stack that can be put at risk. There are two key situations where the value of pocket aces starts to fade: 1. If it's cash game, you may want to play any pocket pair to hit the set on the flop. The reason for this is pretty obvious—discounting the times you flop a set, the value of middling pocket pairs postflop tend to be, well, middling. Low-pocket pairs are good for making a set and winning a big pot by cracking an overpair; they’re very tough to play when you don’t make a set, and you’ll either have. Photo by Hassan Khalid. Play strong hands in an early poker position , good hands in mid-position and a few more hands in late position. So on the flop a pair of jacks must be played aggressively to weed out players. Usually small pocket pairs are played for the principal objective of catching a trio, cause what that happens you have the real potential of earning, hopefully from someone with a good hand. For example, if you’re holding a pair of jacks and there’s a jack on the board, then you have three-of-a-kind, but more specifically, you have a set. 1%. How to Play Pocket Twos in Common Preflop Situations. Middle position gives players a little more breathing room to play low pocket pairs. Texas hold ’em pocket card nicknames. This makes a total of 78 combos out of 1,326. Peaking at one, you see a beautiful red “ACE” ! Your body fills with hope. If you get any of these pairs in your hand, you have a reasonably strong chance of winning a one-on-one confrontation. Unless you hit a set or better, pocket Jacks can be extremely vulnerable to both overcards and bigger pocket pairs. Example: You raise 3♠ 3♣ on the Button and the Big Blind calls. Pocket queens should be one of your absolute biggest winnings hands. Warning: Do not slow play!This is a list of all poker strategy articles that are marked as starting hands. . 5-to-1 against, so you’ll obviously miss hitting a set more often than not. Conditions for Playing Small Pairs. Always remember that. For a newcomer, some sage advice might. Strengthen your poker skills and build your bankroll with this video demonstration. How To Play Pocket Pairs Knowing what to do when you’re dealt pocket pairs can help you make the most of this hand, even if it’s not always in your favor. Small pocket pairs will flop a set roughly one in eight flops, or approximately 12% of the time. There are 6 different ways to form a. Against a single player with a random hand, you win 85% of the time, which equates to an $85 profit. Set mining means calling preflop with a small pocket pair with the intention of hitting a set postflop and taking down a big pot. As soon as there are more than three opponents in the pot, middle pocket pairs are less likely to hold up without improvement. In this case, Three Aces will be the strongest set, followed by three Kings, and so on all the way down to three Twos. Pocket Nines. If you called a raise preflop, look to put in a raise against a bet. In this article, we’ll. Middle position: 22-44: Fold 55-99: Raise to standard for table, figure out how deep you are to see. Sets are considered extremely strong hands in No Limit Hold’em and are frequently strong enough to play for stacks with (depending on the exact board texture and stack. Set mining refers to the practice of playing a non-premium pocket pair passively preflop in the hopes of flopping three of a kind (a "set"). In these situations, the small pairs can realize their maximum equity by going all-in preflop. On 8♠ 8♣ 6♦, the optimal strategy is to c-bet around 50% of the time versus the Big Blind. Try not to get too attached to the hand. The easiest way to play at a low level is to focus on (1). 8824% or 1 : 16. The pace of the poker game is often dictated by the first hand you play. But you shouldn’t always just check and fold with an underpair. Jacks are technically the better pre-flop hand versus any two random cards but jacks also have an unfortunate habit of losing massive. They have the ability to take down big pots after making a set or by being the unsuspected overpair. I have been able to bluff low pocket pairs with even with a high board. . Unlike small pairs, which you usually play for their set value, or big hands that are played for their face value, suited connectors are somewhere in between, and this leads to many complicated postflop spots. A “pocket pair” is a pair that a player possesses in his beginning hand in a Hold’em game. How to play against a re-raise. e. Pretty simple. What this means is. With 20 big blinds in an unopened pot, all the small pocket pairs can be shoved profitably from the button or small blind. You should play premium pocket pairs (AA through TT) very aggressively preflop while your hand is likely ahead of your opponent’s range. Unfortunately, they’re also very vulnerable hands that can get you into a. 2. JJ is such a trouble hand that most beginners actually even hate having it dealt to them. Besides the usual flush and. 4%. It sucks when your pocket pair misses the flop, especially when you’re looking at three overcards. Flop a set (three-a-kind) 2. Q–Q is usually worth a raise or three-bet (this. That's a tight way to play small pps, but you're only flopping a set 11% of the time and that's really the only way to get paid off at least when you're starting out. Chapter 1: Understanding the Strength of Small Pairs . Pocket pairs in Texas Hold'em are very useful cards. Imagine a board such as after you’ve called a 3-bet with from the Button against the Small Blind. Pocket pairs. For pocket 9s, the odds drop from 18. 1. If you play pocket Jacks in a tournament, you can expect players to call all-in in later rounds, even. You can get to showdown and beat someone with no pair or a smaller pair. , $240. Mostly call to see a cheap flop as the chances of hitting a Set (Three of a Kind) is 10. Related Reading: How to Play Small Pocket Pairs in 6-Max Hold'em; SnG ABCs: Small Pocket Pairs; Top-Pair Hands. Since flushes and trips increase in value, suited hands and pocket pairs increase in value. Whether it’s in a single raised pot (SRP) or 3bet+ pot, and for lesser experienced. If you’re at a 9-handed table, the best baseline strategy is to fold Pocket Fives from the 3 earliest positions (UTG, UTG+1 and UTG+2). It’s hard to play some of the smaller pairs for value post-flop as the lower you get, the more overcards and increased chance of someone beating you. I'm a bit of a newbie to poker and started playing online, this situation seems to be one that has screwed me over more than a few times. When you hit a monster hand on a flop like or , start piling money in that pot! If you raised preflop, c-bet on the flop. Play Pocket Tens. CardsChat Freerolls. Pocket pairs are a favorite type of hand for many players. It might not feel like it, but you'll be dealt a pocket pair on average once every 17 hands. Against good, tight-aggressive players, small pocket pairs don’t play well when you’re out of. Baby pairs, "small pocket pairs" or just "small pairs" refer to the lowest group of pocket-pair starting hands in Texas Hold'em, usually ranging from 22 to 66. Unless you want to leak money with your low pocket pairs, you’d be wise to employ a more in-depth strategy. When you have pocket aces in your hand, it’s important that you try to build the pot quickly. If I hit the flop hard, then it depends on the action of the table, but I usually end up with a big pot. Playing underpairs optimally can help you make more money in the long run. The odds of flopping a set with a pocket pair are 7 to 1, which means that we will hit a set 1 in every 8 flops. Sets are often hidden and you can easily stack someone who has top pair or an overpair. I know there is no perfect, guaranteed, positive, all encompassing answer on how to play small to medium pocket pairs, and I have tried various strategies from Jamming pre to limping and other. How to Play Pocket Aces . One of the ideal scenarios when playing Kings is when you’re opponent hits a Queen or Jack on the flop, with a strong kicker. Pocket Pairs (99-22) Pocket pairs make huge hands when they flop sets. You know how good it feels to look down and see. This applies to almost all hands you play, but especially to pocket pairs due to the fact that they don’t offer much flexibility on the flop, turn or river versus other hands. When your two hole cards in Texas Hold’em make a pair, you hold a “pocket pair. The basic idea is simple. Before you get too excited when getting a pair during a poker game , read this article through because it is going to open your eyes to a few unpleasant aspects. 7 percent. The rest of the pairs, 2s through 9s, cannot really be counted as premium hands, apart from in heads-up scenarios. Key Points: Fold in early position to a raise; call big blind and late position. The tighter your opponent’s 3-betting range is, the more pocket pairs you should call with. How to play pocket kings. 9% (once every 17 hands). Aces with weak kickers are back in play, as are medium pocket pairs. EV= 0. Effective stack size. The key to this is knowing how people play pocket pairs. If you have an opponent give you any trouble and you don’t have a set, you can assume you’re losing to everything except a bluff. In the instances where your Pocket Jacks have a smaller pair dominated, you always have to worry about those pesky, sneaky sets. ), whereas top-pair hands go down in. We will cover: What are Pocket Pairs? Pre-Flop Strategy: Position and Hand Selection Playing Small Pocket Pairs (Deuces through Fives) Playing Medium Pocket Pairs (Sixes through Nines) Playing High Pocket Pairs (Tens through Aces) Adjusting Play Based on Stack Sizes Post-Flop Play with Pocket Pairs. 1. So despite pocket-pairs being low playability hands this is not the same as saying they are difficult to play. With that being said, there is a right and wrong way to play small pairs pre-flop and post-flop. If you play pocket Jacks in a tournament, you can expect players to call all-in in later rounds, even. . When someone plays back, I can fold without any real worries. Tip #1: Always bet and barrel for value with top pair (unless the board runs out in a very dicey way) If you have Ace-Queen and the flop comes Ace-high or Queen-high, you have a monster hand worth multiple streets of value. You don't need to double up or stack someone EVERY TIME you hit a set, limping in for 2 bucks and winning a 60-100 dollar pot with a set is a great result. From early position its completely fine to just fold or you can semi-bluff raise a small percentage of the time, I know low pairs make up a limping range for some guys but I personally don’t include them. Pocket queens. If we miss our set, we check/fold. How to play pocket pairs. Particularly when in position, betting on the flop and then bombing on the turn if you pick up a draw really puts your opponent in a miserable spot. Vs Hijack – Call A9-offsuit (folding all lower offsuit Aces). You sit waiting patiently for that big pair, and then BOOM: pocket Jacks! Now what? This page is going to be a collection of fun and interesting spots with big pairs, from pocket Tens to Aces, chock full of tips and strategy to win more with these rare pairs. Two of the most profitable ways to win with ace-king are as follows: 1. There are 3 types of positions you are going to be in, in relation to your. Pocket 7s down are pretty much set mining hands, unless the blinds are very high relative to stack sizes. Photo by Hassan Khalid. These hands can be profitable when you play them from late positions. If you hit a set then you should play your hand very aggressively. Being the one who initiates the action, or someone who follows, determines how to enter a hand. The more you play and begin to recognize the strengths of different types of hands, the. 78%. The best way to play pocket pairs in this instance is simply to set mine, if you make a set on the flop you have a really strong hand, if you miss you can get out of the way without losing too. For example, you have on . How to Play Small Pocket Pairs. How to Play Pocket Nines on Different Board Textures As mentioned in the introduction, hands like pocket nines can be very tricky to play correctly, particularly postflop. “Pocket queens” will almost always help a player in cash games or online poker tournaments so long as no aces or kings appear as community cards. Low pocket pairs are fairly straightforward to play, their certainly a hand you want to play in position and not multi-way if possible. When the action folds to you and you have Ace-Ten offsuit, you should almost always raise. #13. Four of a kind = 2x (double) the 3-of-a-kind value. Hands such as A-K, A-Q, A-J and even K-Q can be profitable hands to play and should be marked high in your poker cheat. A nice flop to c-bet for value with Ace-King. This makes a total of 78 combos out of 1,326. The deeper or larger your stack is, the more profitable it becomes to play small pairs due to the high implied odds on hitting a set. If you miss the flop though, then you small pocket pair should be folded. The Big Blind check-calls a 66% pot c-bet on K♣ 9♣ 2 ♥. Give everyone 1 additional turn to try and beat the high score. However, they put $100 each, so that’s 48% of $500, i. If you face a raise when seated in one of these positions, King-X suited hands are simply too weak to play. Four of a Kind: 0. Against an Early Position raise, fold Queen-Ten suited. These outcomes include: Having enough opponents to supply the correct pot odds. Against a Middle Position raise, fold if you are in the Cutoff. This is a difficult hand for the draw, because. This is a list of all poker strategy articles that are marked as starting hands. Tip #3 – Play top pairs aggressively when in position in single-raised pots. Open raising with pocket fours can be a good play, depending on your position and the number of players at the table. In sum, play the fit or fold for cheap, unless you hit your. With that in mind, the focus of this. I talk about how to play pocket deuces out of position before. 86. Set mining is only one of many possible approaches to take when playing small-to-medium pairs. ). Remember that pocket Aces are not indestructible. The flop is J♠ 7 ♥ 6 ♦ and the Big Blind checks. Maximizing Profit with Pocket Pairs: A Comprehensive Guide. When faced with a 3-bet, you should always call with pocket eights. If you’re seated anywhere between the Hijack and the Small Blind, go. When you flop two pair, trips, a straight or a flush, you should basically always fast-play your hand. How to play KQ, KJ, KT, in single raised pots as aggressor or. The problem with this is you’re out of position for the entire hand. He has no ideas on the other players from previous hands, and he’s dealt pocket tens in the small blind. A premium pocket pair such as pocket aces is going to win you a small pot a lot of the time, but it can lead to trouble when you fall in love with the hand. Below you will find a list of poker hands in order from highest to lowest to help you get started, as well as the top starting hands for. Fair strategy, but. A “set” refers to three-of-a-kind using pocket pairs and “trips” refers to a three-of-a-kind using one hole card and 2 community cards. A pocket pair is when you are dealt 2 cards of the equal weightage or suit. Oct 16, 2014. Pocket Kings and Queens are great starting hands but playing them in a wrong way can quickly get you in trouble. Forum. Ks-Kc-Qd-Jh-5h. In other words it's a little bit like set-mining apart from the fact that we have a chunk of fold-equity preflop too. Middle position gives players a little more breathing room to play low pocket pairs. If you’re losing with this hand over a lot of. In live 1-2, getting tricky with them and trying to steal (after missing) is usually a mistake. Broadway hands. It might not seem obvious at first glance, but boards like 9♠ 5♣ 3♠ and T ♥ 8♣ 2♠ can setup some. With a small pocket pair you’re generally not going to have an overpair to the board. Don't play small pocket pairs in multiway pots, as in multiway (3+ players on the flop) the chance of someone hitting a set too is higher. Baby pairs can be powerful hands for cracking big hands. How to Play Low Pocket Pairs in Middle Position. For this reason, many players will refuse to play pocket pairs below fives. They are two cards of the same rank; for example, A♥ A♦ and K♦ K♣. You can c-bet at a very high frequency and force a lot of two overcard hands to fold their equity. Pocket pairs are excellent starting hands in Hold’em due to their ability to flop a set (three of a kind). The Odds of Being Dealt Pocket Pairs. Connectors •Cards that are separated in. Factor in that you can still lose even with a set. This is a pretty simple explanation though. Multi-way pots after the flop. The notation 22+ means you should be playing 22 and all other higher-ranking pocket. While a deceptive second pair, it is still a second pair four times out of ten and a weak pair once out of every ten times, resulting in a 50-50 chance of susceptibility to being outdrawn. Pocket jacks is a strong hand in Texas Hold’em. Pocket Sevens are a very strong starting hand, falling within the top 6-7% of all starting hands. Use the pocket pairs table below to find out the odds of being dealt different ranges of pocket pairs during a game of Texas Holdem. Set mining is only one of many possible approaches to take when playing small-to-medium pairs. It sucks when your pocket pair misses the flop, especially when you’re looking at three overcards. In this vlog, I quickly discuss what to consider before entering the pot with small pocket pairs, such as stack sizes, overall aggression of the table, as we. 3-bet if another player has raised. The effective size of your stack is one of the biggest considerations when deciding how to play your pocket pair. 75. 3. Pocket pairs are a rather polarizing hand in that you either hit the board pretty hard or you miss completely. If you miss bets with these types of hands. Before we look at how to play your pocket pairs, it’s important for you to have an understanding of the odds – and your chances of being dealt various pairs. 5x the original raise, you can justifiably call with your lowest pocket pairs. There is maybe a limper or two infront of us, or even a raise, usually to 0,25/0,30 cents. Let’s run through every common preflop spot one by one. Pocket pairs can also suck out and make full houses. Q: How many combos of unpaired hands are there in poker? A: There are 16 combinations of each unpaired hand (4 suited, 12 unsuited). These hands are strong enough that they want to value-bet for a small size. There are only 3 higher pocket pairs so you can expect to have the best hand before the flop most of the time you’re dealt them. You only have like a one in ten chance of hitting a set, which means on average you should try and make 10x your return of your preflop bet to make the strategy of set mining profitable. Flopping a set with your small pocket pair is always an encouraging. About 70BB+ should do the trick. 33 and 22 are small pocket pairs. You can raise in late position, but make your raises big. going to have some sort of showdown value. Three pairs = 500 points. You can raise in late position, but make your raises big. From early position its completely fine to just fold or you can semi-bluff raise a small percentage of the time, I know low pairs make up a limping range for some guys but I personally don’t include them. Pocker Pairs are the most profitable hands to play in the game of poker. Playing Aggressively on Each Street. One focuses on pocket pairs and figuring out how many combos of things like sets, full houses, and quads a player can make. Pocket pairs are commonly described to particularly by their rank, for as “pocket aces” for a starting hand of two Aces (aka pocket rockets). Small pocket pairs might look nice as a starting hand, but you should be dumping most of them in early position. I normally play Pocket Pairs strong and 3X or even 4X with them but I also have to decide after the flop whether to call, fold or raise depending on position of my opponent. Hands like suited connectors and all pocket pairs rise in value. The basic scoring rules, along with all these variants, are conveniently listed on our free Farkle score sheets and scoring and rules summary. You only have like a one in ten chance of hitting a set, which means on average you should try and make 10x your return of your preflop bet to make the strategy of set mining profitable. For this reason, you should always raise preflop with Pocket Queens when the action is folded around to you. 340. Even though they are pretty weak hands, playing them wrong will cost you expected value continuously. Each time you get dealt a premium pocket hand you should be betting pre-flop 3-4xBBs plus an extra 1BB for each limper. 1. Instead, your strategy should be to scare the opponents into folding, even if it requires a bit of bluffing. 45% of chances of receiving pocket pairs in Texas Hold’em while. Tip #1 – Lean heavily towards c-betting with your top pairs Top pairs are strong hands on the flop. The ability to go all-in profitably with small pocket pairs when short-stacked makes them straightforward and easy to play. For example, Q-Q vs A-K, and the final board is K-J-7-5-2; A straight. How to play ace king evaluation. Analyzing situations when it’s worth opening with. Flop c-betting range: Sets, two pairs, most top pairs, 2 nd pairs, 3 rd pairs, low pocket pairs, open-enders, all gut-shots, runner-runner flush draws. Small pocket pairs might look nice as a starting hand, but you should be dumping most of them in early position. This video offers tips on how to play poker pairs of different strengths. A pocket pair is when a player is dealt two cards of the same rank, such as two aces or two sixes. 22-66 Fold 77-99 Raise to standard for table, figure out how deep you are to see if you can profitably set-mine if 3-bet, fold to 4-bet. How to Play QQ, KK, AA – New No Bullshit 6-max 14. Avoiding Extremes. It’s very intuitive that Pocket Queens are a strong hand preflop since it’s a strong pair before the flop. While it seems like you get dealt pairs a lot, the actual odds of receiving any pocket pair is just 5. Small pocket pairs will flop a set roughly one in eight flops, or approximately 12% of the time. 3% to 11. . If someone raises in front of you, you should fold middling offsuit Aces every single time except when you are in the Big Blind. Low Pocket Pairs. Always keep in mind that big pots are for big hands. Certainly, hands like 2-2 to 5-5 should be folded to any LP raise. However. But you shouldn’t always just check and fold with an underpair. Certainly, hands like 2-2 to 5-5 should be folded to any LP raise. A pair of ladies performs pretty well against Big Slick but winning against A-K isn’t a certainty. The chance of being dealt a specific pocket. They have very little potential, but if the right cards open on the flop, you can win big. There is a lot to learn about how to play. 3. This gives you fold equity and generally wins you the pot on a. 2%. In this situation, you’ve run into what’s called “kicker problems. #11. Full House (Set to your pocket pair, plus a board pair): 0. To compensate for the lack of information when opening first, you should stick to a tight range of strong hands, including high-pocket pairs, suited aces, and suited broadway hands, to maximize your chances of winning the pot. Against five players with hands from the example, you’ll win 48% of the time. I mean you can play how ever you want, check raise, bluff. The less opponents in the hand the better. Additionally, you can get in cheap and end up winning the pot. 3. That's a tight way to play small pps, but you're only flopping a set 11% of the time and that's really the only way to get paid off at least when you're starting out. Pocket Pairs are the hands known to be the most exciting and trickiest hole cards to play because a player has both the options – winning big or getting wiped out. Combinations. But if the a player squeezed to a very small size, say 2. Unlike small pairs, which you usually play for their set value, or big hands that are played for their face value, suited connectors are somewhere in between, and this leads to many complicated postflop spots. The 9-high top pair is very vulnerable, which makes betting on the flop preferable because of how much the hand benefits from protection. Tip #3: If the board is paired, always fire a c-bet. Obviously, you need to be wary in a full ring, deep stacked game, but jacks should win you money in the long run. If you’re losing with this hand over a lot of. The order of poker hand rankings (from the highest/best to the lowest/worst) is: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, High Card. See moreThere are many ways to play pocket pairs in No-Limit Hold’em, but only a few are correct, and knowing the difference between the right way and the wrong way is going to save you money. Small suited aces though are very powerful hands and they are often misunderstood. In other words, we're talking primarily about small. There is a min-raise from MP2, a small 3bet from the button, and hero decides to call. If we hit a set, we won't get value very often because he'll fold to a raise and probably give up after a c-bet if he missed. . Pocket Kings and Queens are great to be dealt preflop in hold’em. 4%. Your opponent has a pair of Aces with a King kicker (A-A-K-J-8). Danger pairs play a lot like middle pairs, but will occasionally hold their own against an opponent who has hit part of his hand (like someone playing A-8 suited who hits the 8. As long as theres 3+ ppl in the pot its great to set mine with. Things to Consider Before You Play Your Pair. That is a lot of good fortune all in one. Medium pocket pairs have some commonality with small pocket pairs, which usually need help to prevail at a showdown. If you hit a set then you should play your hand very aggressively. Trips and two pair are bread-and-butter value-betting hands. Playing Pocket Jacks - Fishhooks or Jokers. The pre-flop hand values normalize and it becomes more of a post-flop chess game. But if the a player squeezed to a very small size, say 2. A number of positive outcomes need to occur to enable your small pocket pairs to prevail. possible. Let’s do some quick math assuming all players start with $100 stacks. There is a lot to learn about how to play. You play your set or turn it into a bluff when the board supports it. This means that you should try to hit 3 of a kind with your small pocket pairs on the flop. It’s best not to turn your hand into a bluff and fake. Sets will hold up versus a premium pair like kings or aces roughly 90% of the time, which are some of. 1. You can either open the pot 4xBBs or you can limp. With deeper stacks, hands like these function well against as 3-bet bluffs for three main. You want to lean toward betting whether you hit the Queen or the Ten top pair. Let’s split this section into two groups: 1. Take turns until someone reaches 10,000 points. Want to learn how to play pocket pairs in cash games? Read this guide: How to Play Low Pocket Pairs in Cash Games « View All Poker Terms. However, when you are the player making the last big bet you have the added benefit of fold-equity. I’m a donkfish but i play them like my small pocket pairs, you are mainly looking for deep stacked big pair hands trying to crack ‘em . A: There are 6 combos of each pocket pair, meaning across 13 different card values, there are 78 combos of pocket pairs. Add a second player with another pocket pair to the hand and your chance at losing the pot doubles. Get Bonus £400. How well do you know your pocket pairs in poker? Learn how to use them to your advantage. It must be stressed that aces are definitely not a hand to be slowplayed. The medium pocket pairs are 10-10,9-9, 8-8, 7-7 and 6-6. HOW TO PLAY POCKET PAIRS Pocket pairs is the most difficult hole cards for you to learn how to play. ago. Without going into the math, it’s simply strong enough to 3-bet as part of a linear range. 4. Your strategy is defined by two main factors: the strength of your pocket. You should play these pair cautiously from late positions. You should raise preflop with pocket Queens. It is also a good idea to have a clear strategy for when to fold it (yes you should be doing this on occasion). Players will want to isolate and. In hold'em it can be profitable to play pocket pairs because the 1/8 times you hit your set, you can really stack a dude. 45%; this means you will be dealt them once in every. Tip #1: Play more suited hands and pocket pairs (and play them more aggressively) This is basically the opposite of tip #1. Pocket queens strategy evaluation. Once you get a set, playing passively is the last thing you want to do. In this vlog, I discuss how to play big pocket pairs and when to consider 3 betting and flatting preflop. Stack sizes also dictate the value of your small pair. This includes both single-raised pots and 3-bet pots. ” Yes, you have a high pair in the form of two Aces, but you aren’t faring so well because of your low kicker. At a six-handed table, however, the odds another player has a higher pocket pair are reduced to 16. It’s simply a great hand to have since you have a 12% chance of hitting a set on the flop, and you will have a good chance of stacking your opponent if they have an overpair. 5 Tips for Playing Pocket Tens Postflop. Playing and Bluffing with Smaller Pocket Pairs. They are two cards of the same rank; for example, A♥ A♦ and K♦ K♣. Counting Combos: Pocket Pairs Let's try one. All top, middle, and bottom pairs; Most pocket pairs without a backdoor flush draw; All pocket pairs with a backdoor flush draw; All flush draws; Some double backdoor hands (like 7 ♦ 6 ♦). effective stack: the smallest of the stacks involved in a hand.