Jacks, Part II

by: Lou Krieger©

Last issue, in Part 1 of this 2-part series, we examined the inherent strengths and weaknesses of a pair of jacks and learned how flop-dependent that hand really is. Now we’ll explore the best way to play that pocket pair in fixed limit games, no-limit cash games, and tournaments too.

Pocket Jacks in a Fixed-Limit Game
Most players’ will raise with a pair of jacks, regardless of their position in the betting order. It’s one of the best hands you can be dealt before the flop and if an opponent reraises with a better hand you’ll probably lose a few chips, though it won’t be enough to cripple you.

Jacks will survive the flop about half the time. The other fifty percent of the time, a pocket pair of jacks is looking at one or more overcards. Raising is the tactic of choice before the flop to minimize the chance of an overcard helping an opponent.

Raising is the also the best option because when you’re first in, because you probably have the best hand and are favored to have the best hand if no overcards flop. If you raise with a pair of jacks and are reraised, you can call, take the flop and if no overcard falls, you can continue to play against an opponent who is statistically more likely to have A-K or A-Q than a pocket pair of queens, kings, or aces.

In a fixed-limit game, I’m more wary of an ace falling than a king or a queen, simply because so many players are fond of playing any ace they are dealt.

If the flop brings a big card or two, you’ll have to decide based on how well you know your opponent and make a decision about whether you want to continue on with your jacks.

Pocket Jacks in a Tournament
In a tournament you always have to consider how many chips you have compared to your opponent, whether you can afford to call a reraise, and how many of your chips do you want to put at risk on a hand that’s as potentially vulnerable as it is strong.

Playing pocket jacks is easy if you’re short stacked and looking to make a stand. If that’s the case, just push all your chips into the pot and sweat it out from there. If you’ve got an overwhelming chip advantage it’s not all that tough a decision either. Just force any short-stacked player already in the pot to commit all his chips or fold to your raise. After all, you can afford the loss. Even if your jacks aren’t the best hand right now, they can always improve and it won’t cost you any more chips to play it out.

Extreme situations often result in easy decisions — after all, with loads of chips or only a precious few — you’re going to play the hand. It’s all those other situations that make for tough sledding.

If you’re reraised, you’ll have to make a decision about your hand. If you and your opponent are close in chip count, and you are not short-stacked, you can call if the cost does not force you to commit too many chips. By doing this, you’ve essentially deciding to play your jacks like a drawing hand. Now it’s time to say your prayers and hope to flop a set.

If you don’t flop a set, and the odds are 7.5-to-1 against that happening, the flop will help you decide which course of action to take. With one or two overcards and a bet from an opponent, I’d fold my pocket jacks unless I was short-stacked and had to make a stand against an opponent who might be bluffing in this situation.

With no overcards, you can lead out and try to take the pot away from a player who reraised you before the flop with A-K. But if he raises, or he is first to act and makes a big bet, I’d be prone to let my hand go. I just don’t like to play for all my chips with only one pair and no draw to support it unless I am terribly short-stacked. If you’re going to risk all of your chips and your entire tournament equity on one hand, look for a better situation than one where you’re confronting an aggressive player and all you have is one rather vulnerable pair.

If I’m first to act with a pocket pair of jacks, I’ll bring it in for a standard raise of three to four times the big blind, unless I am short-stacked, in which case I’m going all-in. At this point I’d be equally happy winning the blinds or having just one player call me. If there are a couple of callers, or even a couple of callers and a raise from a player who has shown a propensity for stealing some pots with well-times raises, I would be tempted to steal it back from him by making a big bet from late position that he cannot call without a huge hand.

While this play is high-risk, it is also high reward, especially if I can take the money contributed by the blinds, the two or three callers, and the money contributed by the player who raised. Even if I’m called by the original raiser, I may be a slight favorite over his A-K, a prohibitive underdog to aces, kings, or queens, but a huge favorite over any smaller pair he might have raised with.

Jacks are vulnerable in a tournament, particularly when you can ill-afford to squander chips on a hand that’s a pre-flop coin flip at best. The good news is that you’ll attract fewer callers in a no-limit tournament than you might in a cash game, so your pair of jacks has a higher survivability quotient. But even when you are called by a hand like A-K or A-Q, you are still a small favorite.

Most of the time you won’t be at that point where risking all of your chips is really the only course of action, so you’ll probably make a “standard” sized raise with jacks the majority of the time. But before you raise, you should be fully cognizant of the fact that that you might have to abandon ship if the flop is unfavorable and there’s significant action in front of you.

Pocket Jacks in a No-Limit Cash Game
There are a number of similarities between playing jacks in a cash game and a tournament. You’ll still bring in a pocket pair of jacks for a raise or even a reraise in most cases. The difference is that you might have to make somewhat of a larger raise from late position to eliminate all the callers. One of the differences between no-limit cash games and tournaments, especially deep-stack no limit cash games, is that the cash games can have many more callers, and the kinds of hands they’re playing differ too.

In a cash-game players don’t have to worry about depleting their chip stacks and being short-stacked; they can always buy more chips between hands. As a result, you’ll find more players in deep-stack cash games taking the flop with many hands they’d release in a tournament.

You won’t find many tournament players calling with a pocket pair of treys or fours, or a 9-8 suited, because the vast majority of the time these hands have to be folded on the flop. Too much play with chancy hands depletes a tournament player’s ammunition or puts him out of the event entirely. But players in a cash game can and do see the flop with these kinds of hands.

The reason behind this is simple: implied odds. In a deep stack cash game you’re hoping to flop a set and take most or all of an opponent’s chips whenever he flops a playable but weaker hand than yours. Although most good hold’em players are not willing to lose a large stack with a single pair, even a pair of aces, some are. And players lose all their chips with two-pair hands all the time.

In a no-limit game with a restricted buy-in, more players are willing to put all their chips at risk with top pair, and certainly with top two pair. With a capped buy in, the implied odds are reduced because players typically far fewer chips relative to the size of the blinds than they do in deep-stack games. A pocket pair of treys, for example, is not nearly as valuable because there is less money to be won. With fewer “flop-a-set-or-get-out” hands in play, a pocket pair of jacks is less likely to run into a small set than it would be in a deep stack game, where players are willing to see the flop inexpensively with small pocket pairs.

When push comes to shove the question really isn’t about the intrinsic strength or weakness of a pair of jacks, it’s more an issue of how the texture of the flop and the betting action of your opponents impacts the quality of your hand and affects your decision about whether to keep playing. It’s also about a willingness to fold what is the fourth strongest hand before the flop to an overcard or two and any appreciable action on the part of your opponents once the flop is exposed.

So set your antenna to full power whenever you’re dealt a pair of jacks; there’s going to be a lot of information available to you, and your job is to separate the signal from the noise and act accordingly.