More on Small and Medium Pairs on Third Street

Hi. Come on in. I have some cheese, cold cuts, and wheat crackers. We'll munch while we continue from last time.

Automatically raising with small and medium pairs at the lower limits will cost you a lot of money in the long run.

The last time we talked, we determined that in the higher-limit games, players often ram and jam with small and medium pairs. That's fine for them because their games are more aggressive, due largely to the overante compared to our limits. That means that their ante is a larger percentage of the bet size. For example, at $10-$20, as the game is dealt in Las Vegas, the ante is $1. At $20-$40, the ante is $3. Notice that the limits have increased by 100 percent, but the ante has gone up 300 percent. And as the limits increase, the ante size generally increases by a greater percentage each time. This encourages aggressiveness. But at our limits, with a smaller-percentage ante, conservativeness works better.

You'll want to consider several things when deciding whether to play a small or medium pair on third street. What is the quality of your kicker – how high is it? What is your position – are you in the "steal" position (last to act with only the low card and perhaps one other caller in the pot)? Are your cards live? Is your pair hidden or split? What are the other players' upcards? Let's look into these questions, and hopefully come up with some workable answers.

First, your kicker. How big is big? Standard poker wisdom says that if you start with a small pair, your sidecard should be an ace. That's because an ace would be an overcard to the board and give you a shot at the highest two pair if you pair your kicker. I modify that standard wisdom to say that your sidecard should be an overcard to the board but probably not lower than a queen. After all, when you play these small pairs, your objective is to hit three of a kind or a big two pair on fourth street. If your kicker is a small one, you can't make a big two pair. If you pair a small kicker, you'll have two small pair – a tough hand to try to win with.

Let's suppose now that the dealer blesses you with a split pair of sevens and an ace kicker (a 7 showing with a 7 and an ace down). Your cards are all live. The low card tosses in the bring-in money. Should you play? Yes. You have live cards and an overcard kicker. But what if there is a raise before the action gets to you? Do I play? I do, if I can see there will also be one other caller, who's hopefully on a draw. But in an instance like this, I'm looking for reasons not to play. Does it look like there might be another raise behind me? If so, I'm gone, thank you. I have found a reason not to play.

If my kicker with those two sevens is a jack instead of an ace, I won't call the raise. At these limits, it is most likely that the raise will come from a pair higher than jacks. And if the raise comes from exactly a jack, my jack kicker is as dead as a doornail.

Now, let's say you have called with a split pair of nines from early position. A conservative player raises, showing a small card. You know this player raises only with large pairs, so he has something big buried. In this instance, your smaller pair has a legitimate call against a bigger pair. That's contrary to some of what we have already discussed. "What's up?" What's up is, it now becomes easy to read your opponent's hand. He cannot make two pair without your seeing it, except on the last card. If he pairs his doorcard or any other card before seventh street, you can see the pair lying there, and know he has two pair and play accordingly.

We've talked about being willing to call a raise with a hidden pair, especially if your upcard kicker is higher than the pair you figure your opponent raised with. But, if there are still players yet to act after you who have higher doorcards than the upcard shown by the raiser, especially if they are aggressive players, you should fold. There is danger of a reraise behind you, and you can stand only one raise here.

More of this next time. Put the rest of the munchies in your pocket and kill the light on your way out.

Editor's note: Roy West, author of the bestseller 7 Card Stud, the Complete Course in Winning (available from Card Player), continues to give his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas to both tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome. Call 1-800-548-6177 Ext. 03.