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The Power of Pocket Threes

Not a bad night tonight. Not great, but not bad. I was totally saved by pocket threes. “Come on Chris, pocket threes won’t save your night,” you say. Well, let me tell you about pocket threes.

A while back, while talking with Iggy, I mentioned something about about how I thought I had my starting hands figured out and such. He, being Iggy, called my bluff and asked what I meant. I went on to say something about “Level 1″ pairs or something “smart” (ie. Sklansky-like) like that. Iggy, being Iggy, basically laughed in my face and said something to the effect that I was retarded. He went on to say that in the low limits you can limp in with any pocket pair. I expressed disbelief, but he just reinforced that you can do it.

Uh…OK. I was really green, and he seemed to know what he was talking about, so…

Well, after that I started calling any pocket pair. Of course it doesn’t always pay off, but it doesn’t cost much to see if it will. If you don’t hit anything on the flop, get out. Sound advice. So where does that lead to tonight? Have I had too much scotch and am rambling incoherently with no point? Well, maybe, but here’s the payoff for tonight:

Pocket threes three times, won with them twice. Amount won 15.25BB. Hell, I won 2BB with pocket twos, not even on the blind.

If 33 can payoff like that, I’ll definitely pay to limp in with any pocket pair.

The night ended up being up and down. I killed one table, down 5BB on one, and down 10BB on another. Grand total:

Played a total 205 minutes on three different tables (”real” time of two hours, just like I planned), won -$1.25, or -1.25BB, for a total of -0.37BB/hr. So I basically broke even (not sure what the exact criteria is on if you break even, but it was less than 2BB, so that’s close enough for me), which, as everybody says, counts as a “win”. I’ll take it, at least for tonight.

Tomorrow is a different story…It is Friday after all. :-)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2004 at 11:16 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “The Power of Pocket Threes”

  1. iggy Says:
    February 27th, 2004 at 2:18 pm

    yikes, you make me seem like an ogre. ;)
    i apologize if i ever came across that way but i stand by my thoughts on pocket pairs at low-limit, especially 50.1. they basically play themselves and can be extremely profitable over the long-term.

  2. Chris Halverson Says:
    February 27th, 2004 at 2:24 pm

    Yikes! I was not serious about this! :) Well, kinda, but the way I meant it to “sound” was that you were adamant that this is the right strategy despite my doubts.

    And, as you can see, I totally agree and took the advice to heart.

  3. Poker Penguin Says:
    February 27th, 2004 at 11:58 pm

    Any pocket pair is playable from any position in Low Limit Holdem.
    When you flop your set then ram n jam.
    When you miss your set, you check fold like a little girl.

    If everyone folds behind you then you’re too damn tight. If you’re in the cutoff or the button, and it’s a family pot, throw a raise out there. Seriously. You only need 8 callers for it to be immediately worthwhile. Less than that if the suckers will stick around for the turn.

    It’s a medium variance positive EV play.