Joined: Mar '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 57 (M)
Posts: 1703
How aggressive do you play top pair? It seems I overplay it and lose a lot with them Is it correct to play top pair very conservative especially at micros where they will call down with almost anything? In the past, I get really aggressive
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Romania
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 478
my first year of poker i definetly got allin with every kind of pair i could get .Now i even check with moster hands(depend of my pos) ,what s most important ,is that u can play how ever u want a pair with condition that u realy feel the table(players)
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
Depends on the table. Just look for the types of hands the players at your table are willing to play for big pots. If TPTK has those beat most of the time, play aggressiv. If not, try to keep the pot smaller.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
whenever in doubt...go all-in
disclaimer: although this is a full-proof strategy which shows a return better than the Dow Jones index over the course of 47 years it only works if you come from Russia or are consuming adequate amounts of alcoholic beverages while performing this voodoo.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
Its always difficult to know how to play top pair, do you check and hope to check raise him?But if you do this and he gets a free card you feel terrible when he hits. I personally come out betting and then make a decision on the turn
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
My saying for micro limits, mainly Nl2 to NL10, always bet your top pair on flop, turn, river when there are not many scary board. And hope they stack with second pair or weaker hands.
For example. I get TT, I raised got called, flop is 259, bet again on flop, turn is 2, I bet again and river is 8. If he raised river or turn, i will fold. As in micro limits they tends to be honest on the turn and river.
So advice is to bet top pair until you get raised, then you fold. Of course if you have reads then you can go another line!
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
It really depends on the flop, on a very dry flop you should bet very aggressively, if the flop is very well connected or already someone can have a flush you can cbet but on a raise you should fold.
Now it also depends on what type of game you are, cash, sng or mtt(on mtt is also important on what stage it is).
Check-raising a top pair is an insane overplay of that hand. If you weren´t the preflop agressor, just check and call the c-bet´s. This way you get value from opponents bluffs and worse hands, that would fold to your raises and at the same time if you are behind with your hand you lose the minimum money possible. Of course, everything depends on the board texture, type of the opponent, aggresion of the opponent, etc. Poker is a complex game and every situation is different, so there can´t be any universal right play.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Poland
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 50
So
If you want to make a c-bet , do it in most of cases.
But You will see that most of players will call you, with OESD or Flush draw; by the way is so annoying to receive a call when you bet 80% of pot, and someone calls with flush draw or even gut shot I don't have to tell ya where are they come from
Technically , My opinion is top pair is worth to bet or c-bet on the flop, and the turn and river depands on the cards, for example
Hero : AK
Flop : 8c 9c Kd
C-bet / call
Turn: 10 c - you are probably busted
In ZOOM playing , it's a quite nonsense to bet very high with only top pair; it's better to play pocket pairs, and then push with overpair or three of a kind
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Hmm yeah nowadays they tend to calls you with anything, so one tip is do a delayed cbet, check the flop with top pair or even crap hands and then fire a turn cbet, it work wonders, as they do not know what to do,, they may call and you have bet for value or they might raise and you can fold you crap hands.
Joined: Sep '13
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 1564
if its on micro, yea people tend to call too much with underpair imo. Just bet relatively small, dont give free cards away, and on sign of some heavy action let it go. Thats why u dont bet too much at the first place, not to commit yourself because afterall its just a pair. Sure even if you call their overbet/shoves with ur top pair u will win sometimes, but in the long run, i highly doubt it will be profitable move.
tldr: bet so u dont give him free cards, fold on heavy action (ESPECIALLY fold on c/r, most of the time those are slowplayed trips, lol), and learn to let it go if its multiway pot, your top pair is pretty much never good there, even if you are relatively commited you can still save some money that way.
And as a final thought, something a good friend of mine, John Travolta, told me once - Theapple, you shall love turtles.
If you are against a check-call action, you should go for all streets of value, he will have underpairs so often. Yes, sometimes he will be slowplaying big hands and sometimes he will catch his draw or second pair or trips, but most of the times you would be robbing yourself of money if you won´t be betting.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
On micro you should DEFINATELY bet no matter what, there is always someone that is willing to pay you just with air LOL
The idea is that on micro people pay with any 2 random cards and this is also one of the main reasons for which you see so many bad beats on these limits...
How to play it - depends on the players you play with and their style of playing. And the first, what cards, you think, they have. If they got something lower and you have top pair with good kicker - you should try to bet more.
Against a "calling station" opponent you can go for 3 streets of value with good kicker. On a draw heavy board you want to be charging their draws on flop and turn with big bets. But top pair isn´t a nuts hand you want to be playing for whole stack.
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Yeah you have to pick the spot to be aggressive , do not go gun ho on a draw heavy board or wet board. Anyway on dry board you could go for bet bet bet and fold if under aggression. Anyway if i get top pair bad kicker fold it because most of the time you will get dominated with a better kicker. Anyway good luck mate, hope you got a lot of the great advices and applying them at the tables. Cheers have a nice day!
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 45 (F)
Posts: 2261
If I ever see a player at showdown who has called all the way with top pair or worse or who has barrelled all the way with only top pair I always make a note of that. A lot of players seem to have made their mind up to call all the way and your bet size/aggression will not matter in any way to them. How aggressive to play can depend on different things,like do you want them to call,do you want them to fold a draw,do you want a fold,is your aggression being viewed as a total bluff. If you are in position it is easier to be aggro but sometimes some pot control helps to avoid being stacked with only top pair.
