I always play rather loose with my pocket pairs. You know, it’s the usual strategy of limping in and hoping for a set on the flop. It’s a bit expensive of course but it’s almost always good anyway because when you get that third card in the flop you know you have him beat and he’ll never expect it.

The best moments are when you have a confident opponent with an overpair. You just limped in and the flop is low so he is certain he has you beat, the only thing he need to do is milking as much money from you as possible. This is almost the only way I win big pots, I hardly ever go for draws for straights or flushes so there is no big profit there for me.

The problem is that now and then they have a bigger pocket pair. Usually people bet a little harder preflop if they have fishhooks or better but sometimes some nasty Swede or Danish guy will limp in with those pocket jacks and this is what happened to me yesterday.

I was playing $50-$100 blinds short handed cash game all night and I was doing pretty well. After an hour or so I got myself a pair of eights in the pocket and did as I always do, I limped in. The guy on big blind checked, and the flop showed Jack, Three and an Eight. He made a big bet and I knew I had him, he either had an overpair and was to eager or he was trying to bluff me. I called slowly to see if I could milk some more out of him on the turn and river. Of course he had pocket Jacks.

I have no good way to finding these things out. The only thing I can do is start crying and keep playing poker. I don’t usually get this upset by getting beat but it always hurts much when I try to be smart and someone does the same thing back. Feels like I’m the stupid one in the crowd.

I have no idea what the poker statistics is for this strategy but I have a general feeling it’s a really good strategy. The best advice I can give you if you try playing this way is to keep an eye open because sometimes the get a bigger pair. Sometimes they do the same and limp in with it. If you don’t want the same situation of crying and playing you’d better not overplay that set. Poker is a dangerous game because there might always be a guy with fishhooks lurking in the darkness.