How Ironic: Pocket Jacks Knocked Me Out Today.

I entered the $330 NL event today at the Oaks.
Only 85 entrants. Starting chips $6,000

At the start of the event, I like to put 20% of my chips aside to play speculative hands like suited connectors. I didn't hit any of these hands today.

In the first round, there were 5 callers and I limped with pocket 2. The flop had a 2 and the turn was a 2. Four deuces! There was no action on the hand, so it was a little disappointing. It was also the only hand I won for the first three rounds.

I got moved, thankfully, to a new table. My chips were being bled out, until I found A-K and doubled up to $3,500. But, I was card dead and with players pushing all-in, there was nothing to do but wait.

I was down to $1,600. And pushed again when I found pocket Queens. I tripled up to about $6,000. I finally was even with the buy-in of chips!

I got moved again. We were down to 3 tables, and I was low in chips. There was nothing to do but be patient. When I was down to $4,500 I pushed all-in under the gun with A-K. I got two callers. One had A-Q, and the other A-J. The K flopped and I tripled up again.

I called from the small blind with pocket 9's--the raiser was tight, and tended to make all-in calls. The flop came Ace high. We both checked. And the turn was a Q. I checked-folded. Perhaps I should have used the stop and go on the flop, but I didn't feel the time was right.

Two hands later, I moved all-in with pocket Queens and won most of my chips from the prior hand.

The blinds were now $800-$1,600 with a $200 ante. I was in middle position. Everyone folded to me. I had about $17,000. I found--those freaking pocket Jacks. I flashed back to the blog and the discussion about this hand. We were down to 17 players.

The right play is to push all-in. Which I did.

The player to my left insta-called with A-K.

The flop hit the Ace and I was out.

I did get back $265. Oh well...a win in that hand would have probably put me in the final table.

Twitter Answers to Poker Question on Pocket Jacks

Here is the question I asked last night: How would you play Pocket Jacks in a no limit poker tournament? Assume 1st hand of event. You are first to act after the big blind, $25-$50.

Here are the answers--you need to click on the photo to enlarge the visuals:




My favorite answer is from trishwebb who tweeted: "Of course, there are just 3 ways to play jacks and they are all wrong.:)"

I think pocket Jacks is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult hand to play in no limit poker tournaments. A main reason it is so hard to play is that you will usually get a flop with a card higher than your Jack--it's like 65% of the time.

Pocket Jacks is a premium hand, and you don't want callers. I believe you must raise in this situation. But not a big raise. If you make a big raise you may be committing yourself to call a re-raise. (A lot of times players in this spot will raise 5 times or more the big blind to protect their hand--which may signal you have a pocket pair like 9's, 10's or J's.)

If you like small ball raise 2 1/2 times the big blind. If you want to tell people you are strong, bet the standard 3 times raise. If you really don't want to commit, raise 2 times the big blind. My objective with pocket Jacks is to eliminate opponents and keep the pot small.

Just don't call. It is hard enough to play against one opponent when you have this hand. To invite more callers, well, is that much more difficult.

Thanks for your response.