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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