Optimal way to open suited aces and small pairs
Posted by dkill37
Posted by
dkill37
posted in
Low Stakes
Optimal way to open suited aces and small pairs
I was looking for some advice on opening ranges, especially in EP, with small pairs and suited aces. I currently open all small pairs and suited wheel aces, but usually dump like A9s and below preflop. Is this an okay strategy?
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I'm assuming that you're playing 6max.
I personally open A2s-A5s and 66+ from UTG, and from MP I open every suited ace and every pair. I think that's a reasonable strategy (feel free to disagree!) If table is weak and/or passive you can open every pair from UTG aswell, more Axs hands too.
Thanks. Now what do you think about calling behind with these sorts of hands (mostly talking about suited small aces here).
I don't usually coldcall with these type of hands (22-55, A2s...) because they are not that strong. I will call CO open from the BB for example though. It always depends, but usually I'm folding if someone opens and there are ppl behind me. A2s-A5s I often use as a 3bet bluff, good candidates to do that with. 22 not so much.
How come you don't flat 22-55? Isn't the point of those hands to flop sets? They are also much stronger in position IMO.
If you have passive/weak/bad players behind you can and you should call with 22-55, but if there are aggressive and good players behind I don't think we should be calling 22-55 in MP vs CO situation for example. The problem is that players behind can squeeze and we have to fold our hand, which is never a good thing since we put 3bb in the pot and then just fold. Not saying that putting 3bb in the middle and then folding is bad but it's never a great outcome and we should not look to do that too often.
That makes sense, thanks for your replies Samu!
Samu, great explanation of your points.i tend to side with dkill on flatting these hands in position.
I'm curious on the squeezes though: if you know players behind you are squeeze happy, can't you exploit this by adding some value hands in your flatting range to 4 bet over the top (or just call down)? Idea is to protect your range and still let you profitably flat these Axs and 22+ type hands...
Honestly I'm not too sure whether 22-55 should be a call or not in CO vs BTN or MP vs CO type of situation. I have seen good players folding those in videos and I've kind of assumed that those are not profitable calls on aggressive games. Either way, it seems like there's not a huge difference between calling and folding in terms of ev, and it depends a lot on who opens, how many players behind and are players behind aggressive squeezers.
And about protecting our range by calling strong hands too: yeah, if there are aggressive squeezers behind I would definitely call KK/AA some % of the time. I already call AK/QQ UTG vs MP and AA/KK like 15-20% of the time. And if we have these hands in our calling range, that should allow us to call more often with those 22-55 in theory I believe.
About the small PP discussion:
The problem with small PP like 22-55 is that if you flop a set it's almost always bottom set and if someone is willing to put in postflop in a single raised pot another 97bb, where he invested 3bb it's likely he is strong...meaning higher sets/straights/flushed. So you have reversed implied odds.
And those small PP don't really play so well postflop. there will be 3 overcards 95% of the time. And can't even flop a pair+gutshots/oesd etc.
This!
Well that explains a few "coolers" I've had recently! Thank you.
that is not always true imo...I have lost the count of how many times people stacked off with overpair, TPTK and 2p. If villain is a player like this than it definitely worth flatting those pp's when you suspect he has a very strong range, because when you flop the set you will probably take all his money. The problem is when you start flatting these hands all the time. If you don't have the implied odds (if villain doesn't have a strong range with which he will stack off post flop with 2p or less) than you should obviously fold
Well I've been playing on Bovada lately, so the implied odds are certainly there. TPTK for these players means GII no matter what lol
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