How should I play premium pairs early in the tournament to avoid losing everything?

[Forza0416]

Hello,
I often tend to go all-in pre-flop with a high pair at the beginning of a tournament, but that often works out badly. I also don't want to literally play into the hands of the opponents by letting the flop happen. Any tips?

 

[rsparente]

Raise higher, but not all in. Make it clear you have premium hands if you don't want to play the regular way (raising, getting 3bet, 4bet and so on).

Avoid going all-in, as doing so will lead to coin flip most of the times, and nowadays we have a lot of players that want to make their hero calls out of nothing.

 

[fundiver199]

Going all-in preflop can be both correct and incorrect depending on stack sizes, positions, action and of course your exact hand. We are always very happy to get it in preflop with AA, because preflop thats the nuts, but even with KK it can sometimes be better to not put in the extra raise and just call, or even in rare situations fold, if it seems highly likely, someone else have AA.

Moreover raise sizes should always be in relation to the size of the pot and remaining stacks. So even if any raise preflop with AA is always profitable, its not optimal to pile in 100BB over a 3BB open. So dont be afraid to see flops with premium hands. Postflop big pairs are just hands like any other, and you make decisions based on, how the board runs out and the action of the opponent.

Maybe one tip, that can help you, is to stop thinking at the situation like "I have JJ" or "I have AA", but instead think of it as "I have an overpair on a dry board", or "I have top set" or "I have an underpair to top pair". Or in broader terms "I have a value hand" (overpair), "I have a strong value hand" (top set), or "I have a marginal made hand" (underpair to top pair).
If you have on , your situation is not all that different from having on the same board, and your plan should generally be to do some pot control and try to get to showdown in a small to medium sized pot. Unless of course you improve, in which case you make a new plan.

 

[sandy358]

Hello,
I often tend to go all-in pre-flop with a high pair at the beginning of a tournament, but that often works out badly. I also don't want to literally play into the hands of the opponents by letting the flop happen. Any tips?

Not jamming them all the time will make you better than 90% bronze and micro players.

But it all depends on the exact scenario you are in and the big pair you have. Jacks and queens should be played cautiously, you don't want to find yourself flipping your entire stack against AK after your 4bet jam got called, but in general you should not be folding them preflop, but it mostly means that you should call a lot with them, there are very few cases when you fold big pairs pre (you can 5bet-jam them as a semi-bluff against wider ranges sometimes though to fold out weaker overcards).

Feel free to enter any pot with AA and KK. These are two best hands you can have preflop and you are most likely miles above your opponents if you have these. AA sometimes prefers slowplaying though, as they don't need as much defense postflop and equity denial with them is not that big of a factor, so don't rush to jam with aces.

And, note, this is mainly for deep stack play. If you dropped to a short stack early in the tourney, your jamming strategy will differ significantly.

 

[Sparta77]

I don't think there's a cure for that. When I have a premium pair before the flop, I usually go ollin.

 

[GarotoMaroto]

AA,KK instashove pre flop
QQ only shove if in position
JJ or less only shove if short stack
Thats what I think is good, sometimes I just raise from AA but is when I feel like the players are too tight
God bless