Playing Premium Pairs in Cash Games part two

Middle Position

The way that I play aces and kings in middle position is very similar to how I play them in full ring Texas Hold’em poker games in early position. Once again if it has been folded around to me then I will certainly not attempt to get cute by limping in or minimum raising. The further around the table you get then the less likely are your opponents to believe that you have a credible hand so what is the point in slowplaying the hand?

As in early position, if there have been limpers or if there has been a raiser then I will re-raise with either hand. One thing that confuses many novice no limit poker players and especially many who have transferred across from limit hold’em games is the necessary amount that they should raise and re-raise. This is a very involved subject all by itself and far beyond the scope of this article but there are many more similarities between no limit hold’em and pot limit hold’em than there are between no limit hold’em and limit hold’em.

Both no limit and pot limit are classed as big bet poker but one of the primary differences between the two forms is that one offers you the potential to get all in and knowing when is the correct time to do this is a primary skill in no limit play. But most of the time, making pot size raises and re-raises is roughly correct depending on your stack size of course. So in short then, simply raise and re-raise whenever you have a hand that is as strong as AA and KK and if you are up against AA when you have KK then that is just tough luck.

Late Position

Once again if it has been folded around to me in late position then I will open raise. I see people and have heard people talk about limping in here trying to be deceptive but I really do not see the point in that at all. Everybody expects a raise from what is considered a steal position to be done with a less than premium hand so no one will be taking you for a premium pair when you raise from that position anyway.

If you get some smart ass or a strong player on the button or in the blinds who is determined to put this “bully” in his place then they could just re-pot you here or maybe go all in on your lucky days. So simply open raising from late position can be the most deceptive play of all. If there have been limpers then I will obviously raise with both hands but this time I will tend to raise more than pot as I really do not want to play a multi-way hand with both aces and kings.

In fact I will raise more with the kings than with the aces because the cowboys are in need of more protection than the aces because you always live in fear of that dreaded ace arriving which seems to come with alarming regularity whenever you seem to be holding kings.

Depending on stack sizes of course then I may simply move in before the flop even if that means overbetting the pot. If your raise or re-raise leaves you with a small amount of money then you may as well scoot it all into the middle there and then.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
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