Pocket Jacks in No-Limit Hold’em

Pocket jacks are quite a bit like pocket queens, which were the subject of my last column. You may recall that I was quite conservative preflop with queens when the money was deep. Since queens beat jacks, I naturally am even more cautious with jacks. You should not be getting all in with this weak a hand unless you are heads up with a known maniac — and even maniacs will pick up a big pair once in a while.

I do not want to demean jacks too much. Preflop, I think they are a good enough hand to raise from any position. Since they easily can be beat and are not strong enough to limp and then reraise, I raise with them nearly always.

It is normally worse to call a reraise with jacks than it is with A-K. Compare jacks with A-K against a hand that has the strength to reraise, and you will see what I mean. Jacks are a big underdog when all in preflop and facing a bigger pair (it is more than 4-1 against the jacks). The A-K is only about an 11-9 underdog to queens, and between a 2-1 and 2.4-1 underdog against kings, depending on the exact matchup (it is helpful for the A-K to be suited). True, jacks are better than A-K when facing the mighty aces, but they also are more likely to run into either aces or kings than a hand that has an ace and a king tied up, as does “big slick.”

What about reraising preflop with jacks? The young guns seem to reraise with hands like jacks (or queens or tens) more than we veterans do. I have to agree that reraising preflop is a strong poker play — especially against a solid citizen like myself. What I fail to understand is why someone would pick a high intermediate pair with which to do it. They are potential double-up hands that can legitimately get all of an opponent’s money in a set-over-set situation. If I am going to reraise with a hand that lacks the requisite values, I do not want to do it with a hand that has a realistic chance of winning a big pot. I prefer to use a big-ace hand like A-K, A-Q, or A-J. Heck, I would even rather do it with a hand like 7-6 suited than use two jacks for this purpose. When you reraise preflop, much of the time, your opponent either plays back at you to invite going all in or throws his hand in the muck. In those two actions by your opponent, how much better are two jacks than 7-2? (I assume that if you choose to reraise with a pair of jacks, get reraised, and there is still money left to wager, you are not married to your jacks.) So, I prefer to reraise preflop with one of the less valuable hands, if I am not going to show up with a big pair.

When discussing my reluctance to reraise preflop with a pair of jacks, I exclude from that comment those situations in which there are only a few players left to contend for the pot, such as the blinds and the button. If I hold jacks in one of the blinds and the cutoff or button raises, I first must have that person sized up as to how often he open-raises the pot from good position. If he is a frequent raiser, I will play back at him from either of the blinds. I do not like calling the typical raise of three times the big blind with two jacks when my opponent could hold nearly any two cards. When reraising from either blind, be sure to overbet the pot size by a decent amount. This reduces the chance of a call and defines your opponent’s hand better if he does play.

Now that you understand my general philosophy, let me present a couple of situations in which you hold a pair of jacks preflop. In these two situations, you are playing in a $5-$10 blinds cash game in which you have a grand and the others in the pot have as much or more than that.

1. You are in the big blind, and a player you do not know very well calls from early position. The button, who raises fairly often, pops it up to $40, so you owe $30 more to call. What should you do?

Answer: Call. Folding is wimpy, and not even in the ballpark. I do not like a reraise. I would reraise it about $100 more if heads up, but the third player in the pot changes everything. The button is much more likely to have a real hand when there is one early-position caller already in. If you raise here and the limper reraises, you will be searching for an airsickness bag. The fact that the player on the button raises fairly often provides an extra incentive for a big pair to limp in from up front. Respect the up-front limper’s presence in the pot and just call. Paying $30 for the chance to flop a set is reasonable when you have a grand in chips.

2. You are in the big blind. The under-the-gun (UTG) player calls, the cutoff calls, the button calls, and the small blind completes for another $5. Should you raise? If so, how much?

Answer: Whenever I am in the big blind, I watch the UTG caller like a hawk, to see if I can pick up anything regarding the value of his hand. Here, if you raise, the expectation is that if you are able to get past the UTG player, the others are likely to surrender. Most of the time, I would raise here. In fact, it is common for me (and, of course, many others) to raise from the big blind if I think I can get away with it. They limped, didn’t they? However, I think stealing when in the big blind is not high-percentage poker in a $1-$2 blinds game; $5-$10 (and higher) players are less likely to challenge you — especially if you play few starting hands and have white hair. Jacks figure to be the best hand, so you are protecting the hand that is in front, not stealing. How much should you raise? If you raise $50 more (a pot-size raise), to a total of $60, you are not following the advice that I have been giving for many years. You are supposed to overbet the pot size here; $50 more is too big a bargain to offer. I would raise at least $65 more, to a total of $75. Raising $75 more, to a total of $85, is another likely option. You need to overbet the pot size when raising preflop from out of position. You would not be looking for action even if you held a better hand than two jacks (or a bluff). When you are facing a bunch of limpers and have pocket jacks, you should be inclined to raise. “Jacks or better” is a good guideline.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered (autographed to you) from Bob by e-mail: [email protected]. Free U.S. shipping to Card Player readers. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons at a reasonable rate. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert’s Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.