Playing Pocket Eights Preflop Against a Tight Opponent
DECISION POINT: In a no-limit hold'em tournament, the blinds are 1,000/2,000 (no antes yet) when a tight player with 77,000 raises to 10,000 in early position. It folds around to you in the big blind where you have 54,000 and have been dealt 8♠8♣. Action is on you...
PRO ANSWER: With open raises of 5 big blinds or more and 50 BB or less in the stacks, we should not have a calling range from the big blind in most cases. We should typically reraise or fold in this spot.
Against an unknown opponent raising UTG+1 pre-antes on a 10-handed table, we can assign our opponent a default range of around 10 percent of hands, which includes most pairs and most suited Broadways. When Villain has that range, we should fold 8-8 given this raise size and these stacks.
If our opponent had opened to 3 BBs, we should defend our blind by calling, but at 5 BBs we should simply fold. Calling to see flops for 4 BBs or more from out of position won't be profitable at this stack depth.
If our opponent is opening a wider range from early position than default, then we should move all in preflop with our 8♠8♣. For example, if our opponents are opening 20 percent of hands from this seat, then shoving with 8-8 is quite profitable.
However, given the info provided, folding is the best play.
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