What is your goal when you hold a pocket pair in limit hold 'em? Hey, that's an easy one... to hit a set... or even quads. But let's not get carried away. We would all be happy to hit a set on the flop with our pocket pair. Hell, we could always make a set into quads on the turn or the river!
Let's explore your best options for proceeding when you're lucky enough to hit that 7.5-to-1 shot on the flop. The simplistic advice from back in the day was to play a small set fast and to slow play top set for maximum profit. While I might not totally disagree with that pithy dictum, it certainly is simplistic and quite possibly wrong depending upon the situation. Remember the "it depends" caveat of poker? That's why the game is so challenging... you cannot apply hard and fast "always do this or that" type rules to these situations.
The first criterion on how to play your set is what else makes up the flop and how coordinated or dangerous the board looks. The more dangerous the board appears, the faster you should play your set, regardless of whether it's small or large, in order to protect against becoming the victim of a suck-out. Many players are hesitant to become aggressive in this situation because they don't want to "lose their customers." That should not be concern number one. While you do want to get more money in the middle, you also want to protect your hand. Finally, your aggression may well be viewed as weakness. Most players have learned the classic tell of "weak is strong" and "strong is weak" and draw invalid conclusions about an opponent's actions on occasion due to rigid adherence to this concept.
Generally, I believe in the title of this column and deem it appropriate to play your set fast almost all of the time. Yes, speed can translate to profit even if it closes out the field and prevents a loss that could occur by allowing opponents to draw out on your set because they were able to play along cheaply. Charge them for the option of chasing. After all, you're hoping what you charge them will soon be in your stack.
Another reason to opt for speed is that it is always better to win a small pot than to lose a large one! If much of limit hold 'em is about value betting, what better hand, aside from a made straight, flush, full house, or quads on the flop, will give you a better value betting opportunity?
For the most part, I believe that one should play sets fast and resist the temptation to get tricky with slow plays. Remember what the Mad Genius taught us all about that. Fancy Play Syndrome or FPS first coined by Mike Caro recommends that straight forward play is usually the best course of action instead of trying to make fancy plays hoping to improve profit. Of course there are times when you might want to set a trap and slow play even if just not to become too predictable. Your default play should be to play your sets fast.
Our goal for today is to usually-I didn't say always-put the pedal to the metal and play sets fast. Let's call that approach "speed for profit." Remember, even if you do lose your customers once in a while... at least you will have won the pot.
See you next "TIME"
Tom "Time" Leonard has played poker in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and California for more than 30 years and written about the game since 1994. Contact Tom at thleonard@msn.com.
