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Wrong Way to Play JJ?
We are in a $16.60 tournament, right before the end of late registration. Our stack is well above the tournament average. Villain is 19/12/0 with a 36 hand history.
Here is the hand:
Yatahay Network – 2000/4000 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
CO: 9.74 BB
BTN: 10.75 BB
SB: 39.9 BB
Hero (BB): 49.61 BB
UTG: 49.6 BB
UTG+1: 22.42 BB
MP: 5.45 BB
MP+1: 8.27 BB
8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Jc Js
UTG raises to 2.1 BB, fold, MP raises to 5.32 BB and is all-in, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 49.49 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 47.37 BB and is all-in
Flop : (105.77 BB, 3 players) 6s 8c 8h
Turn : (105.77 BB, 3 players) 5d
River : (105.77 BB, 3 players) 5c
Hero shows Jc Js (Two Pair, Jacks and Eights)
Main Pot [17.47 BB]: (Pre 19%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot [88.3 BB]: (Pre 20%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
UTG shows Qc Qd (Two Pair, Queens and Eights)
Main Pot [17.47 BB]: (Pre 56%, Flop 78%, Turn 88%)
Side Pot [88.3 BB]: (Pre 80%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
MP shows Qh Ac (Two Pair, Eights and Fives)
Main Pot [17.47 BB]: (Pre 25%, Flop 13%, Turn 7%)
UTG wins 105.77 BB
An argument could be made for calling the short stack jam, but then if we get raised or jammed on by the tight UTG raiser, we are in a pretty ugly spot.
But the big iso jam against a tight UTG raiser with pocket jacks might be a bit too ambitious. Still, it seems we need to take spots like this if we want to win tournaments instead of just min cashing all the time.
What do you think?
One thing this hand proves is there’s no right way to play pocket jacks.
Merry Christmas!
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1 Reply
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One way to play it is to just raise for isolation rather than jam. This will allow you to get away from the hand should the original raiser go for an isolation bet pre. Something like 12BB pre. The MP jam is so small that we really aren’t playing against him we are playing against the UTG opener. Even though we only have 36 hands on the opponent his stats indicate that he is trying to play optimally and is not splashing around. If he re-raises all-in we can easily fold. If he only calls our raise or if we just call the jam and UTG only calls we probably lose our stack anyway on this run out. But by raising instead of jamming we have the option of letting go of the hand.
Merry Christmas!
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