Small Suited Connectors & Small Pocket Pairs

garro · Sep 01,2004, 02:52 PM

Hello all.

I have recently to try and expand my abilities in hold'em (aka beyond top 10-20 starting hands) by fooling around and playing a bit more with small Pocket pair (7 and under) and under 10 suited connectors (98, 97, 86, 75, 45). Mostly in the re-buy tournaments.

I feel that it is possible to get and win some really good hands by playing these starting hands for value.

One thing I have found is that my strategy for playing these two types of hands is remarkably similar.

Mostly I play them when at least 3-4 people are already in the hand (thus this means I almost always play them from mid-late position) and there has not been more than a 2.5x-3x single raise in front of me. That is to say if 3 people have called ahead of me and there is a raise of the minimum amount I would play a small pair/suited connector. I almost always will fold them to and large re-raise. After the flop if I do not hit the hand I am looking for (a set/2 pair with no large card larger than my top card on the flop/Straight or flush).

So far I have had about a 40/60 success ratio with them.

The big problem that I can see with playing these cards is that people will often limp in with large pocket pair, or large suited connectors. I have a hard time getting off of the small suited connectors when the flush hits, and being over powered by a larger flush. And the small pockets making a set vs someone else making a higher set.

Does anybody else out there play these kind of hands, and if so have any advice on how to play them.

Snoman · Sep 01,2004, 05:03 PM

You could try betting hard at them preflop if your in late position or SB/BB with no raises infront of you, easy way to get a steal. Other than that though, i can't really think of anything.

arkose · Sep 01,2004, 05:11 PM

i'll give ya some advice about these types of hands, as taken from the Reuben and Ciaffone book called Pot-Limit and No-Limit Poker (a very good book about big bet poker)...

basically, you have to look at how deep the stacks are of both you and whoever is raising...it matters less if the raise is 2x BB or 10x BB....implied odds are everything with these types of hands in no limit...

their rule is the "five and ten rule"....that is, look at the smallest stack involved (you or him), and determine what % of his stack equals the raise you are calling (ie. you are in the big blind for $5, a smaller stack of $300 raises to $30....your call is $30 which is %10 of the smallest stack..........now, if the amount to call is %5 or less, you call; if its 10% or more, you fold; and if its inbetween, its a judgement call

the other thing is, if a couple other people also call the raise, then you call slightly bigger raises because the pot odds make up for it......as for position, position doesnt matter much with the pairs because you are going to fold if you don't hit a set regardless; with the suited connectors though, its definitely more difficult to play them in EP, you'd rather have a good flush/str8 draw in later position so you can see what he does on the flop

and really, you can't worry much about set over set...it happens sometimes, and it sucks, but....you make so much money from sets that you can't be afraid to try for them

hopefully that helps a bit....how you play on the flop and beyond is another story, but this should give you a simple way of playing preflop......the gist of it all is *implied odds*

LOL@U · Sep 03,2004, 02:13 AM

I always play the low pairs from middle/late position unless the blinds are just too high. (20% of my stack or more.)

I think suited connectors are highly overrated and I only play them from late position with 4 or 5 people in the pot.