Why Does a Solver Barrel Low Pocket Pairs? TheWakko Explains

If you are playing your pocket pairs only to flop a set, you're missing out on a lot of EV.

In this video, I will show you guys the modern approach to playing these low pairs and show you the five main reasons why these pairs are way more powerful than you think, even if you do not flop a set.

1. Disguised Outs and Implied Odds

The first power of the pocket pair is the EV of its improvability. Beyond flopping a set, when I started playing poker, the most popular advice around playing these pocket pairs was "no set, no bet," meaning that you should try to get in pots cheaply with your low pairs, try to flop a set, and if you don't, put no further money into the pot. I even remember my coach back in the time telling me that if you see players barreling pocket pairs, you should call your friends. The reason he said this was because pocket pairs, if they don't flop a set, have very little equity to improve. Especially back then, all our betting and calling was done around equity.

And while it's true that the pocket pairs have less outs and less equity than, let's say, a straight draw or a flush draw, we missed something very important: the outs of these pocket pairs are way more disguised and therefore have greater implied odds. Meaning that if you do hit your set on a later street, your opponent won't see it coming and therefore is way more likely to put money in the pot as it perceives these turns and rivers to be blanks.

2. Higher Fold Equity

Power number two is increased fold equity due to its unblocking properties. Next to the EV of having it, another reason we pick the bluffs to seat or barrel is due to its blocking and unblocking properties—preferably blocking the hands that call your bet and unblocking the hands that fold to your bet. So, we enjoy the maximum amount of fold equity possible.

Take the following example: we are button versus big blind, and after having set the flop, we can now seat to turn. Let's look at our straight draws and our pocket pairs. W

hile with having a straight draw, we have four or even eight outs to the nuts and some additional outs for second and third pair, we still prefer to check that hand often and instead use these low pocket pairs as bluffs.

Now, the reason for that we find in villain's folding range on the turn because the straight draws block a lot of the hands which villain is going to check-fold on the turn, which reduces our fold equity.

But if we look at these low pocket pairs, they don't interfere with the folding range—AKA, they have good unblockers to barrel, which makes them enjoy more fold equity than the straight draws.

If we continue on this example and we look at the EV of barreling our draw versus our pocket pairs, you might see something very confusing: barreling the draws has higher EV than barreling the pocket pairs. Then why do we prefer betting pocket pairs and checking straight draws?

Now, the reason for this is not necessarily the power of the pocket pair but more a theoretical principle around how to construct ranges that many players get wrong. We don't just bet or barrel our hands that have the highest EV to reach the desired frequency but instead must compare the EV of betting our hand versus checking our hand and then choose the highest EV option.

Whilst barreling the draw has more potential...

...checking the draw and always realizing our equity—sometimes hitting a pair on a later street that we can value bet or get to showdown—also has a lot of EV.

Where these low pocket pairs often have way less showdown value and improve ability to be played passively, and therefore betting more easily outperforms the EV of checking.

3. Hidden Value Bet

The third power of the pocket pair is you are actually value betting next to generating EV by getting more and better hands to fold. We actually also generate EV versus some parts of villain's calling range, especially on boards that contain a lot of King and Ace high draws. Players will often continue calling these draws as they expect to be up against worse draws than them, as these are the more traditional type of hands players would choose to barrel with.

This play works especially well versus recreational players who tend to overcall a lot of their draws and have way more random third and fourth pairs in their flop calling range, which we can fold out on the turn.

4. Back The Team

So far, we've discussed how the pocket pair itself generates EV, but it actually serves a greater non-selfish purpose in your overall strategy. A common problem with the way humans usually construct ranges is that they're too focused around equity. The problem with this is that when all the draws miss on the river, you will have way too many bluffs in your range.

On the flip side, if all the draws complete, you will now no longer have any bluffs, which discourages your opponent from paying you off.

Not getting called in these kinds of scenarios because you don't have enough bluffs really hurts the EV of your value hands. And while the attention in poker often goes to the cool bluffs and big hero calls, getting maximum amount of value out of your value hands is actually where most of your money is made.

A solver looks very far ahead and adjusts its ranges even as early as pre-flop to make sure it has enough bluffs on all possible boards and runouts that exist to make sure that its value hands can cash in for the maximum. Take the following example: we call pocket Deuces to a three-bet, and the flop comes King-Queen-Jack. Our opponent bets one-quarter of the pot, and while most players would have mucked as soon as villain reaches for chips, the solver actually has different plans and calls the c-bet.

Now, the interesting point is the EV of the call. The solver is actually not generating much to any EV with calling these low pairs.

However, when we remove the calling of low pocket pairs to the cbet and now compare the EV of our M-hands, we can see that these now generate significantly less EV. As when we always fold our Deuces on the flop, and the turn is a 10 or Ace, for example, it's impossible for us to generate EV as we have no bluffs to encourage our opponent from putting money in the pot.

Now, while in theory this bluff does not make you any money, getting to these completing runouts with your low pocket pairs in practice will, as it's likely that your opponent will not be able to put you on enough bluffs and therefore will start over-folding.

So, to conclude, the fourth power of the pocket pair is increasing the EV of your mid-hands by having bluffs on all possible runouts and taking one for the team.

5. Joy From Someone Else's Pain

Now, for the fifth and last power of the pocket pair, I want you guys to play the following hand with me. We defend from the big blind and check-call a cbet on the turn. We face a barrel and decide to call again. The river is the biggest brick in the deck, and facing a bet, we are pretty happy calling down as we have a strong hand, and the board ran out in a way that it's impossible for our opponent to have improved to a better hand than ours. Right?

We call, and villain shows up with pocket Deuces, rivering a set.

So, for the fifth and last power of the pocket pair, it's that pleasure you get and that pain you feel when hitting your set on the river—go tilt them guys!