Winning Hands with a Middle Pair

When you’re holding a big pocket pair, drawing is a little easier since you know the payoff will be big assuming your hand hits.  Even if the board doesn’t give you a set, you’re still in pretty good shape with a high pair.  However, holding a middle pocket pair is a different story since you are left with little if your card doesn’t land on the board.

With this being the case, playing a middle pair is very difficult since it’s likely someone else is already holding a bigger pair.  So what do you do…fold…check and call…play the middle pair like it’s a made hand?  Surprisingly, the last answer is sometimes the best action as long as nobody is raising like they have the nuts.  A middle pair may not be the best hand, but at least it’s a made pair.

So let’s say I’m holding a pair of 9’s in the small blind, and the action comes around to me in an unraised pot.  I choose to call thinking I may be the only person with a made hand at this point; raising is an also option, but it only serves to increase the pot with an already difficult hand.

After calling, the big blind folds leaving only me and two other players in the hand.  The flop comes 3h-6d-Jc leaving me with no set.  However, I can also assume that nobody else hit their hand based on this poor flop.  Sure someone could have a jack, but it’s not very likely assuming nobody raised, leaving me to think there are no A-J or K-J combinations.

Thinking that I still have the best hand, I decide to bet which makes one player fold and another call.  The turn is a Qh which has me somewhat scared since my opponent could have been calling with something like Q-J or Q-10.  I check and, thankfully, my opponent checks as well leaving me to believe I’ve still got the best hand.

The river is a harmless 2s which makes me think I still have the best hand so I bet.  My opponent calls, and they show an As-8c combination; the opponent most likely thought I was trying to steal the pot in this instance.  By sticking with my middle pair, I was able to take down a pot here, and show some unpredictability as well.