Early Strategy

[Bellerophon 0]

What would you do with pocket Jacks in late position within the first 3 hands of a Single Table Tournament?Here is what happened:The first hand of the Tournament I am seated 2 off the button in late position. There are a few limpers and when it gets to me I raise to make it 200. 2 players fold, the small blind calls and the big blind raises All-In. Everyone else folds and when it gets to me I decide to fold since it is early and I don't feel like gambling a coin flip in the first hand. Did I do the right thing, or should I have pushed my chips in?To let you know what happened..... the small blind called with rags and the big blind only hand A7. He hit an Ace but I would have hit my Jack. I don't know if that ****ed me up, but I had bad timing the rest of the tournament folding the nuts 3 times (unknowingly till the next couple cards came out) and went out 7th.

[kkot 0]

Don't post results.I'm assuming you started with 1500 chips.I think it's an easy fold. At best you are in a coinflip, and more likely dominated. The J that you would have caught doesn't matter.

[outsider13 0]

If anything, limp. If you hit on the flop, play it. If not, fold. Don't raise that hand because people will call anything and JJ isn't a very strong hand.

[Bellerophon 0]

Actually we started with 2000 so I still hand a lot of chips left. But you are right, people will call with anything that early in the game unless you make it 500, but then you are gonna get a Jackal to call you or raise you all in so I think you guys are right with folding them or limping. Thanks, I hope I get more replies.

[kkot 0]

Barring reads, raising is better by far.With 2000 starting chips it is almost definately a fold.

[Money022 0]

Easy fold. It sucks to see you would have had the best hand, but you can't let yourself tilt just because of the results, or the fact that your opponents held rags. It's no different than folding a bad hand when it would have won a big pot. I can't tell you how many times in live games I hear people moan about how their T4os would have taken down a huge pot. All I want to do is tell them to STFU.

[babylondonks 5]

Easy fold. It sucks to see you would have had the best hand, but you can't let yourself tilt just because of the results, or the fact that your opponents held rags. It's no different than folding a bad hand when it would have won a big pot. I can't tell you how many times in live games I hear people moan about how their T4os would have taken down a huge pot. All I want to do is tell them to STFU.

I hope you tell them that they should have stayed in with it instead

[Doug 0]

If it's a freeroll inst-call you are up against Ace 7. But if you are playing at limits worth something then it's probably a fold.EDIT: I didn't even read the last bit of your post where you said the guy had ace 7 so I'm guessing it was a freeroll then?

[Bellerophon 0]

I didn't tilt cause of that one hand, I don't know if I really tilted at all... I just had horrid timing the rest of the tourney. Everytime I thought to play a hand I would fold or end up getting raised out by people with crap cards and then I woulda hit my hand. It was a bad game with bad players, that's all.

[Zach6668 513]

I didn't tilt cause of that one hand, I don't know if I really tilted at all... I just had horrid timing the rest of the tourney. Everytime I thought to play a hand I would fold or end up getting raised out by people with crap cards and then I woulda hit my hand. It was an amazing game with bad players, that's all.

fyp.

[Bellerophon 0]

fyp.

LOL, true.

[BlubsRoyal 0]

yup, JJ can be easily beat, i rank it down with pocket 10's. I would have limped with that hand espeicaly if you know you have alot of calling stations or loose players alike. Easy fold, but to your expense losing more chips than you should.

[Wandigo 1]

Like everyone else said, limping and seeing a flop isn't bad. If you miss, then you can easily let it go. In you're situation though, there's no problem in folding that hand. You're obviously better than someone who's shoving A7 on the 3rd hand and can make your plays later after you have some reads on the table. You're at best a coin flip here, no point risking it this early (unless it's a freeroll, then i instacall)Oh and don't let the fact that a jack came out bother you. You can't let that get to you or it will affect your future decisions and you won't make the "correct" play. As long as you're playing mistake-free poker, the wins will come and outweigh the losses. A good player makes the correct decision every hand, a bad player adjusts his play based on "what would have happened if he did ________"

[Jordan 1]

$5 or $10 or $20 sng, i'll usually call.but i mean, it is JJ and most idiots won't shove A7x there...they are more likely to shove 22-TT, re-raise small with QQKKAA and then shove AK/AQ.so i mean, whatever. if it's low limits...you gotta tax in the fact that a lot are just bad...and although you might be up against AK/AQ flipping, i think you're more likely up against something you are well ahead of.- Jordandisclaimer. I havn't played < $20 sng for well over 18 months...so i may be rusty?