Everyone is not entitled to an opinion!
Life, POKER, Tournaments
Eye surgeries delay P1 opening 12 days (Caro blog)
BLOG, Life, Personal
Fast 2014-09-16: Murder of contemporary music
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), AUDIO AND VIDEO, Controversy, Life, Thoughts, Video
Fast 2014-11-04: Strange slogan at my polling place
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Life, Thoughts
Fast 2014-11-29: Atheist billboard misunderstood
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Controversy, Exclude ads, Life, News
Fast 2014-12-18: Tell Sony to release movie
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Controversy, Exclude ads, Life, News
Fast 2015-01-16: Movie Gravity not science fiction
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Life
I used to be mentally retarded (Caro blog)
BLOG, Life, Personal, Psychology
I wake up with 311-point Scrabble word (Caro blog)
BLOG, Life, Personal
Improving your poker position
General, Life advice
Index: Life
Life, SPECIAL INFO
McHaffie: MCU lesson 021 / “Threshold of Misery”
Entries by others, General, Life tips, Motivation
MCU life tip: Change foes to friends by seeking advice
Life tips, POKER
MCU life tip: How everyday irritations stop success
Life tips
MCU life tip: If you can’t win immediately, act last
ALL (newest first), Life tips
MCU life tip: It wasn’t always obvious
ALL (newest first), Life tips
MCU life tip: The risk of not doing it
ALL (newest first), Life tips
MCU life tip: Where to find the truth
By Mike Caro | A short and simple Mike Caro quote that is worth pondering and remembering.
Life tips
Mike Caro “In the beginning” mantra explained
Gambling, Life advice
Mike Caro poker word is Bet
General, Life advice

Everything is everywhere

Any Poker1 page takes you anyplace you want to go!

Poker1 

Megadex

Poker1 universe —
all in one place.

→ Collections
Special Poker1 groups

Poker1 Megadex tools

— main navigation departments —

Collections

Related groups of Poker1 content

↓ Major collections ↓

Gambling  •  Hold 'em  •  Info  •  Life beyond poker

Poker (all)  •  Poker dictionary  •  Poker psychology

Poker statistics  •  Poker strategy  •  Poker tells

Prediction*  •  Shopping  •  Zone 2*

↓ Tip collections ↓

All*  •  Gambling*  •  Life*  •  Poker*  •  Various*

↓ Contributor collections ↓

Brunson  •  Caro  •  McHaffie  •  Wiesenberg  •  Others*

↓ More collections ↓

Poker1 FAQ  •  Poker-tell videos  •  Review of poker lessons

Sunday sessions*  •  Targeted poker quizzes  •  Tuesday sessions

* Any collection followed by an asterisk ( * ) has no entries yet.

A-to-Z     Library     Collections     Top     Home

Poker1 everything

Browse alphabetically

 

B

M

N

P

S

T

W

A-to-Z     Library     Collections     Top     Home

Poker1 library

Content in categories

A-to-Z     Library     Collections     Top     Home




≡ Content above: Poker1 Phase2a specification ≡

MCU poker tip: Hold ’em small pair disaster

Poker1.com default content graphic

Small starting pairs have many problems in hold ’em. One reason they’re often unprofitable is that they sometimes become no pair whatsoever!

If you hold a medium pair like 8♥ 8♠ and the board is 2♦ K♠ 4♣ 4♦ K♣, you hold a potentially commanding two pair, kings over eights. But, with that identical board, if you hold 3♥ 3♠, you have the same two pair everyone else does — kings over fours — with a three kicker.

Remember, the rank of non-premium pairs matters. There are many other reasons for this, too, beyond the disaster discussed above. You should often automatically fold small pairs in early positions — in both limit and no-limit hold ’em games. Especially in raked games, deuces through fives tend to be unprofitable when played from early positions.— MC

Everyone is not entitled to an opinion!
Life, POKER, Tournaments
Eye surgeries delay P1 opening 12 days (Caro blog)
BLOG, Life, Personal
Fast 2014-09-16: Murder of contemporary music
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), AUDIO AND VIDEO, Controversy, Life, Thoughts, Video
Fast 2014-11-04: Strange slogan at my polling place
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Life, Thoughts
Fast 2014-11-29: Atheist billboard misunderstood
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Controversy, Exclude ads, Life, News
Fast 2014-12-18: Tell Sony to release movie
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Controversy, Exclude ads, Life, News
Fast 2015-01-16: Movie Gravity not science fiction
ADDED FAST, ALL (newest first), Life
I used to be mentally retarded (Caro blog)
BLOG, Life, Personal, Psychology
I wake up with 311-point Scrabble word (Caro blog)
BLOG, Life, Personal
Improving your poker position
General, Life advice
Index: Life
Life, SPECIAL INFO
McHaffie: MCU lesson 021 / “Threshold of Misery”
Entries by others, General, Life tips, Motivation
MCU life tip: Change foes to friends by seeking advice
Life tips, POKER
MCU life tip: How everyday irritations stop success
Life tips
MCU life tip: If you can’t win immediately, act last
ALL (newest first), Life tips
MCU life tip: It wasn’t always obvious
ALL (newest first), Life tips
MCU life tip: The risk of not doing it
ALL (newest first), Life tips
MCU life tip: Where to find the truth
By Mike Caro | A short and simple Mike Caro quote that is worth pondering and remembering.
Life tips
Mike Caro “In the beginning” mantra explained
Gambling, Life advice
Mike Caro poker word is Bet
General, Life advice

Everything is everywhere

Any Poker1 page takes you anyplace you want to go!

Poker1 

Megadex

Poker1 universe —
all in one place.

→ Collections
Special Poker1 groups

Poker1 Megadex tools

— main navigation departments —

Collections

Related groups of Poker1 content

↓ Major collections ↓

Gambling  •  Hold 'em  •  Info  •  Life beyond poker

Poker (all)  •  Poker dictionary  •  Poker psychology

Poker statistics  •  Poker strategy  •  Poker tells

Prediction*  •  Shopping  •  Zone 2*

↓ Tip collections ↓

All*  •  Gambling*  •  Life*  •  Poker*  •  Various*

↓ Contributor collections ↓

Brunson  •  Caro  •  McHaffie  •  Wiesenberg  •  Others*

↓ More collections ↓

Poker1 FAQ  •  Poker-tell videos  •  Review of poker lessons

Sunday sessions*  •  Targeted poker quizzes  •  Tuesday sessions

* Any collection followed by an asterisk ( * ) has no entries yet.

A-to-Z     Library     Collections     Top     Home

Poker1 everything

Browse alphabetically

 

B

M

N

P

S

T

W

A-to-Z     Library     Collections     Top     Home

Poker1 library

Content in categories

A-to-Z     Library     Collections     Top     Home




≡ Content above: Poker1 Phase2a specification ≡

Published by

Mike Caro

Visit Mike on   → Twitter   ♠ OR ♠    → FaceBook

Known as the “Mad Genius of Poker,” Mike Caro is generally regarded as today's foremost authority on poker strategy, psychology, and statistics. He is the founder of Mike Caro University of Poker, Gaming, and Life Strategy (MCU). See full bio → HERE.

5 thoughts on “MCU poker tip: Hold ’em small pair disaster”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let's make sure it's really you and not a bot. Please type digits (without spaces) that best match what you see. (Example: 71353)

  1. thanks for putting this up. This tip in particular has saved me quite a bit and where can I get pp3. Haven’t been playing long but learning fast but need to learn faster “breaking even or small profit most days but still lose more than I win”

  2. I agree with the maestro, el professoro de poker, the most brilliant of brilliance on everything contained herein EXCEPT pocket pair 5’s – you can’t make a straight without a 5 (or a 10 for that matter) and that can make all the difference in this scenario. 5-5 is profitable, Phil Gordon calles it “Presto”
    Comments, Mr. Caro?

    1. Hi, Dave —

      Thanks for making your first comment and joining our Poker1 family.

      The poker term “Presto” was probably first used in the Usenet community newsgroup rec.gambling.poker in the 1990s. You are right that it refers to 5-5.

      The name didn’t mean that the hand had any special power though. Rather it was just fun for forum members to relate (or possibly exaggerate) instances of the hand winning.

      Michael Wiesenberg defines three separate instances of the word “presto” in the MCU Dictionary of Poker: http://www.poker1.com/archives/5546.

      Straight Flushes,
      Mike Caro

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let's make sure it's really you and not a bot. Please type digits (without spaces) that best match what you see. (Example: 71353)