How to Play Medium Pairs Pre Flop (Poker)

With these pairs pre flop you should not be too aggressive. These cards are classed as TT, 99 and 88. Medium pairs are a strong hand against one player. Heads up a medium pair will win over 70% of the time and will dominate many hands that Low Limit players love to play (small pairs and Suited cards).

You will often be up against big cards like JQ or AK and you will only be a negligible favorite against these hands.

Whilst a mid pair is not so strong, when you consider that players in low limit games love to call, there will be a lot of hands in play that you have beat. You will find that either you are a slight favorite or you are a huge dog, possibly up against a big pair.

You should try to raise if you think you can manipulate the pot and reduce the number of players in the game to one or two. You can do this if players are folding to raises or you are in late position and there has been no raises. In a typical Low Limit game, regardless of whether you raise or not, you will not get a player to fold any 2 big cards. In this case if you face a raise, you should just call to see what the flop brings.

Remember that in playing you don't want to be too aggressive as if there are over cards on the flop (and there is a good chance there will be), there are a lot of ways that you can be beat. Unless you hit a good draw you will have 2 outs which is not great!

In summary, if the game is tight, you should raise and try your medium pair against one or two players. If the game is loose, call and hope to make your set. It is ill advised to put in a re-raise with these hands as unless up against a bluff, you are only a marginal favorite at best. Don't place too high a value on medium pairs. These are cards that you will want to play hoping to improve. It is often the case that if you have any over cards to your pair, you will end up losing the hand. Ideally you will want to see no over cards on the board. So pre flop, put in the raise. if there is already a raise there, call and see what the flop brings.

Remember, a medium pair if good pre flop but unless you hit one or both of the two remaining cards of the same value as your pair you will be reliant on making a draw, and not a very good one. You should limp in with your medium pair pre flop and hope to improve.