People say this because we're programmed to remember the tricky decisions and lost pots. But overall, JJ is a great hand. It does very well against most opponent ranges, and in the long run, you'll likely win good money when you're dealt it over a large enough sample
Agreed - you have to know your opponents and try and pick up on their patterns. It's almost as if you are no longer playing your cards, but rather your opponents. Even if an overcard comes, it's not necessarily a bad thing.....REMEMBER, that overcard may be bad for them as well, so you want to apply pressure in the right situation. That comes with practice. It sounds easy, but I'm still trying to figure this out too.
In early position, the classic approach with pocket jacks is to bet hard, 4 times big blind. You want to isolate the number of players that call. In late position, in similar fashion I want to push out players. Assuming that I am heads up on the flop, I am going to do a continuation bet on the flop, almost no matter what. However, if this is re-raised I am out. I was knocked out of a big tournament final table by hooks when I had AK. I don't underestimate the power of this hand, but it must be played carefully.
If you do that, what if someone 3 bets you? The problem with a big pre-flop raise is that you are building a bigger pot pre-flop. You don't necessarily want to do that either, because now, you have more chips in the pot even before a flop comes, and THEN what? If you have an opponent who is tricky, they can apply pressure to you.
Conversely, if the best case scenario hits, and you flop a set, then you're in REAL good shape. I guess it's just about how you feel about committing more chips pre-flop.
If you're in a tournament situation and you are facing a single all-in, you're almost always calling with that hand. If you run into Queens, Kings, or Aces, well, that's just a cooler. But, seeing AK, while not great, it still a drawing hand and has to improve, so you WANT to be in that situation where you have the better hand. Remember, to win poker tournaments, as Gripsed (Evan Jarvis) mentioned on his stream today (twitch.tv/gripsed) you have to run well, run ahead of expectation and avoid getting unlucky.