[Stifler's Mom]

Pocket pairs are always an interesting topic to me.

First of all, this has NOTHING to do with Chris's hand, but rather just my personal opinion on how I like to play pocket pairs, since I saw "I either raise or fold this hand", and immediately thought of alot of the guys I play with who just love hammer the crap out of like pocket 3's or 4's just trying to get rid of everyone, and then sit there like "oh shit" when someone makes the call.

I suppose it's all a personal preference on how you're comfortable playing them, but I would much rather get in with a low pocket pair for as little as possible (preferably only calling the big blind), and look for the trips on the flop, and play the hand from there, depending on stack sizes, table position, what cards actually come out, etc.

Yea, I know the odds aren't great that you'll hit your set (is it like 12%?), and you'll fold away a few of those hands when the flop doesn't cooperate, but you'll get paid off pretty nicely for hitting that set just about every time too (especailly if your opponent hits his K or his A or whatever), since it's normally kinda hard to put someone on pocket 4's or something and just assume they hit a set cause the flop came out with just some random low cards, and IMO that more than makes up for the ones you end up having to fold away.

I hate the idea of getting committed to a pot by throwing a huge raise out there to trying and buy the pot, and then have someone call me or raise over the top, when essentially the best I can really hope for is to be in a coin flip situation and one where i could be completely dominated by just about any other pocket pair before even seeing a flop.

To me, that's just not getting your money in wisely, and you're left sitting there in a position where you almost have to call his raise to see a flop cause you're already committed, even though it's only resulting in getting more of your chips in bad, when you probably don't even have the best hand.

Either that, or you just tossed a big pile of chips away unnecessarily if you fold to his raise, and didn't even get to see a flop he was originally willing to let you see for the price of the big blind.

Maybe I'm a tight player at times, but it annoys me when I give away chips like that. I'd much rather toss away a few small bets and go for the bigger one when the opportunity presents itself.

Not that i automatically would chuck out the low pocket pair every single time either, but generally, yes, i would fold it to any raise of 3x the big blind or more if i don't catch my set.

On the same hand, I also notice alot of people with AA, KK, or even QQ trying to drag the hand on by checking or betting small and inviting others to follow all the way to the river, only to make a big bet at the pot then, and get called or raised, (and beaten) by someone who had garbage to start, but hits a hand along the way....and then cry about getting a bad beat.

I say if you have AA or KK, take it down right off the bat, if you can. Don't invite some guy with 7d-8d or something to keep calling cause your bets are so small, and then sit there and think you got screwed when the guy hits his straight or flush on the river, when you could have pushed that guy off his suited connectors long before he even saw that river card.

Just how I like to play em....

O yea, I saw a guy flop quads a while back and make a huge bet, with no callers. WTF? Way to maximize the potential of your hand, LMFAO