Christian Harder, having accumulated around 2.9 million gain in both live and online, has had an excellent sequence at the WSOP. He did fellowships on seven occasions, including a 100th place in the Main Event. In an interview with PokerNews, Christian Harder, known as 'Charder' online, says its general line and give policy advice and its tactics in the tournament, when it receives a small pair.
Early in the tournament, while your stack corresponds to 100 bb, Harder advises to relaunch on most tables. There are exceptions: against good tights-aggressive players, small pairs are not played very well when you are out-of-position. Ideally, at the beginning of a tournament, you want to play the hand against as many players as possible with your small pairs. Beginners will sometimes feel more comfortable in limp, and that's okay... unless your limps will often revive. In this case, it is not a good idea: you should raise yourselves or so bedrooms your small pair in early position.
In late position, early in the tournament, Harder does generally not recommend 3-better. As mentioned earlier, you want to end up with as many players as possible preflop and 3-bettant, you might rather you pick up in a one on one situation.
As carpets become less deep and you can just hope to hit a set, because ca will not happen quite often to justify the price. It will become increasingly hard to make a profit with your small pairs, so you will need to either sunset or, if the time is right, 3-better bluff in some players.
Facing a player who raises preflop, it is important to consider how far this player is tight. More the player is loose, most carpets must be profound to justify a call. The reason for this is that you have smaller implied odds because they will generally have weaker hands. As the flop will not be help as often, they will lose in general less tokens to your set. Generally, you will need a depth of about 40 big blinds carpet if it is assumed that they have revived at 3bb or less.
If you're on an aggressive table where there are many 3 - bet, worth better simply bedroom your small pair... unless you're ready to 4-better with them! But most of the time, you should sleep your small pair. Raise preflop with the intention of 4-better can often put you in hot water...
Against certain types of players, you can 3-better with your small pairs. Players who tend to lie against a 3 - bet or players who will follow with a very strong hand are the ideal candidates against whom you can 3-better. It is not bad to 3-better with small pairs because you still a «value showdown» if they call your bet: after all, you have a pair! In addition, hitting a set in a re-raised pot makes your particularly well disguised hand. But in general, I prefer re-raise with a hand like T8s, because it's easier hitting the flop and what kind of hand is played much better postflop.
On 3 - small pairs from the blinds bet, I am not fond to this idea because in the blinds, if one follows your bet, you will be out of position, and it will be difficult to play the hand postflop. After all, your opponents are likely to call your bet with weaker hands simply because they have position on you. Yet once, it still depends on the size of the mat: If actual carpets are really deep, it becomes an easy call; If you have less than 25 BB and your opponent is aggressive, you can just go directly all-in. But generally, if they raise low and you have a decent stack, you will have good odds to call their recovery.
When you're shortstack with a small pocket pair (of the pair of 2 to 6 pair) in early position, it is better to directly push all-in if your carpet is less than 12 blinds. Again, it depends on your table, but if you have a good image and your opponents are unlikely to call the bet with hands low, you may even push all-in with a carpet of 15bb! But generally speaking, I'll simply push with carpeting less than 12bb in early position. In late position, like on the button or the cutoff, I'll probably start to push my carpet at the centre if it is less of 20bb, simply because there are fewer players in the hand which are likely to call my bet. I have the impression that with about 20bb, if I raise to 3bb, there are many players who have tendency to want shoving you pushing over your raise. You certainly don't want to call the bet for all your carpet in this case with a small pair, so it's probably better to directly push yourself!
