MVPSPORTS

There is nothing wrong with playing 10s and Js weakly preflop. In fact, one of the most common leaks in NL games is that people overplay these two hands preflop and on the flop. I'm sure you have experienced many situations where you raised or re-raised these hands preflop and then were completely stuck when an overcard hit. If you aren't that confident in your ability to play one pair postflop then you can make things easier for yourself by limping in EP and raising in MP-LP so that you will have position postflop.

In general, you shouldn't overvalue big pairs in NLHE. As powerful as they are, it is easy to get trapped playing one pair, and although statistically AA and KK are huge favorites against any other hand, when you play a huge pot with them unimproved you will often find yourself to be on the losing end of it. Big pairs gain more value in short buy-in games such as the old Party 50xBB game and even moreso in late stages of a tournament, but in deep stacked games look to make the big money with small-med suited connectors and little pairs. Raising with these hands in any position can be fine if you don't carry on past the flop if you don't hit.

I've learned that some people prefer to limp with JJ in a pot that others have already limped instead of raising to limit the field. I reason being you are only going to get called by someone that is only slighty a dog or looking for a set they have odds to hit. I found this lesson painfully obvious in one such hand in which I had about 3x the buyin and so did another player. It was limped around and we saw the flop 6 handed. I held 55 and the flop came QJ5 with two hearts. I was in LP so I saw a small bet and then the large stack raised it big (overbet the pot by a lot). This all said to me he's got QJ or KTs hearts. Either way I wanted to get my money in and raised him back to which he put me allin. I really thought about folding but talked myself out of it because with his position and the amount of limpers I thought for sure he'd raise with JJ or QQ. $300 later I now know that JJ can be a profitable hand to play weak and go from there...

The lesson was used to trap an aggresive opponent on a $200 NL table I was playing at months later. I had position on him and had a stack of ~$550, he had just over $1000 which he built being a bully and generally getting lucky. I knew if he stayed I was going to run through him. I get JJ in LP and this guy makes his standard raise to $6 and gets 3 callers including me. Flop comes AJ8 and he fires out at it like he would with any ace he played. I wasn't going to slowplay here because it would be obvious I had a big hand so I raised him the pot and he quickly went allin. I used my time to think if he had AA which could be but I remembered theres no way he puts me on a set of jacks and the others limpers could have been playing aces. I call his allin and drag a 1k+ pot when he flips up a set of 8's. There's no way he put me on JJ.

WOW Token... I need whatever kind of magic juice you've been drinkin lately... nice winnings... I don't play the jacks so much as a slow play as a conservative one... It seems like everytime I bet it out, the flop comes AKK or some other god awful flop... It's more of a money conserving thing... if I hit, I win... if I don't, I cut and run... But that's good to know that people will underestimate it, so that when I do hit, maybe I can take down a grand too... It'd be nice to stop eating Ramen Noodles for a change..

I would just repeat what has already been said.

Always raise the same amount to help disguise your hand a bit. Basically any hand worth playing in the first 5 or 6 positions after the BB should be raised. If its already been raised ahead of you and you don't think your hand is worth a reraise you should probably fold.

BK