How do you play pocket twos?

Pocket twos is the smallest pair in poker, a set-or-fold hand you open from late position and otherwise treat with real caution.

Pocket Twos

Speculative

50.3%

Equity vs a random hand

6

Combos (of 1,326)

2/5

Seats that open it

Open the deuces from the button and small blind, mostly to pick up the blinds, and call a raise only when the stacks are deep and the price is right. Any flop that misses your set leaves you with the worst possible pair, beaten by every overcard and every bigger pair. The whole hand is built around the small chance of flopping a set and getting paid.

In the GTO solver's 6-max ranges this hand opens for a raise from the button and the small blind, and sometimes from UTG, the hijack and the cutoff.

Common mistake: Calling raises out of position or stacking off with an unimproved pair of twos. It is the bottom of the deck, and it plays like it.

Quick tip: The smallest pair there is. Flop a set or move on.