Playing Middle Pairs

How do you play middle pairs? Everyone seems to be in the same predicament time after time. It could be early or late position with a big stack or a short one but we all have to make decisions on how to play middle pairs.

I kind of have a rule of thumb about playing poker tournaments or cash games before I begin to play my hands. Here are a few questions I like to ask myself before getting involved in a hand with middle pairs pre-flop:

1. What kind of image am I portraying to my opponents?
2. How many chips do my opponents have?
3. How many chips do I have?
4. What position am I going to be playing my hand from?
5. What was the last hand I showed down?

These questions are not just questions you should ask yourself before betting involved with middle pairs but with almost any hand. These kinds of questions help you put together your own story before getting involved in the pot. You need to understand the larger picture of what it taking place in order to effectively take advantage of the circumstances.

There will be times when you want to raise from early position with middle pairs depending on whom you are playing with and your image at the table. Typically this is not the way you would play this hand but you must be capable of changing gears to remain effective. On the other hand, if you have a ton of chips you have the option of slow playing or fast playing middle pairs from any position.

For instance you may want to raise it up substantially from the big blind with [5][5] after watching three players limp into the pot to steal the pot away from them. This is a very good play under the right circumstances and with the correct information on your opponents.

Each of the above scenarios demonstrates of how to change gears from different positions at the table. However, in most hands with middle pairs you want to call and hopefully hit a set on your opponent on the flop. This way if you are faced with a big bet or re-raise after missing the flop you can easily get away from the hand without taking a big hit to your stack.

The one thing you always try to avoid doing with middle pairs is not over playing the hand. If you see a raise in front of you that will cost your more than one-fifth of your stack then you probably want to fold the hand. You want to limp and call very small raises with middle pairs unless you are late in the tournament and the stacks are already large.

If you can stick to those basic principles you will do just fine.