Poker Articles

Pocket Tens - Seal

In my last article I presented a hand history illustrating a situation I found myself in when I held AK. I find AK a difficult hand to play correctly sometimes and it is important to pay careful attention to everything going on at your table in order to make the best decision you can. Another hand that gives me similar problems is pocket tens.

One problem with pocket tens is that they look pretty. By this I mean that when you get them your ears perk up and your brain starts working. Unlike when I peek at my cards and find 72 and quickly decide that my cards are inconsequential to my actions. Pocket tens are definitely cards with possibilities.

For one thing they are big enough that, should the board end up with two pair showing, they will beat at least one of those pairs and you won't end up losing to a singleton ace kicker. They are also big enough to only have four overcards that could show up to spoil your day. Still, if you run the numbers, you'll find that at least one of those four cards ends up on the board more often than not. In this way I look at pocket tens as the teenagers of poker hands "“ big enough to stand up on their own sometimes, but too small to party with the big boys.

So what is the right thing to do? Well, as any serious student of the game knows by now, there is no all-encompassing right answer. Wait for it "“ here comes the big fat but. BUT, I have come to some conclusions.

At the start of a tournament, when the blinds are small and there are no antes, I will almost always set mine with my tens. The paltry few chips in the pot make a raise almost silly, as I will generally fold to any decent re-raise. I will always limp with them after a limper or two, and call a small raise, especially if there is already another caller. But in both instances I am looking to flop a set or some ridiculously strong draw or get out. I generally stick with this strategy until the antes kick in. Some exceptions to the above are when I am in a rebuy at a table that is full of gamblers, or I am in a situation early where I want/need to gamble to get a stack or move on.

Once the antes start I begin thinking about mixing it up more. Since I am going to be stealing sometimes anyway, an open raise with my tens now and then is a good thing. In fact I think about making an open raise with most of my pocket pairs at this stage, especially if I have some chips to play with. There are times when I will get a call, for any one of many possible reasons, and should I get lucky and hit a set I can often stack my unwary opponent. There have even been times when the flop comes up something like eight high and an aggressive player with A8 makes what he thinks is a value bet and we go from there.

Later on in the tourney things change again. If I am short stacked and looking for a spot to get my money in, tens are certainly good enough. If I am living large and one of the shorties makes his move I will often call him down with my tens. And if we are playing short handed then the value of my tens goes up even more. At the final table is where pocket tens get the most thought from me. I will often fold them against a bigger stack where I have to commit a high percentage of my stack pre-flop, unless I need to double up or get out, and then it is on.

In general, like most situations in poker, you should always use all the available information when making your decision with your pocket tens. Things like position, stack size, player image, and more become even more essential when holding a hand with possibilities like tens. Sometimes the difference between having a monster stack at the final table and watching it from the rail depends on what you do with your pocket tens.

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