Double-paired starting hands

You have to think about ranges. I think that in 4bet/5bet range is AAxx. There are some premium aces, and there are some garbage aces. But the range is AAxx.

Sometimes there is 7 in opponents hand, and AAxx takes that into account. You have to understand that when there is 3bet, 4bet and 5bet the chances are pretty good that there are two set of aces involved. And they eat each others outs.

7722ds against AAxx and AAxx is 37% favorite preflop.

Against AAxx, AAxx and 5678 hero has 26% equity. Sometimes heros suits are dead, sometimes they are both alive. But when we deal with ranges, it's the average equity that is given. Sometimes hero has more equity, sometimes less.

I spent some time running equity calcs before I made my claim earlier and I definitely still stand by it. Try it for yourself, plug in a double suited, double paired hand and see how the equities run out against X opponents with ranges of X, Y and Q. You're always going to be getting the correct direct odds and because of the nature of double paired hands they are very easy to play postflop and have decent implied odds in a lot of situations.

Yes sometimes you'll get it in very bad against AA77 and KK22 and be drawing really slim, but that's the super rare case. Sometimes you'll get it in amazingly good against AAKK, AAKK, QQJJ and QQJJ but once again that's super rare. When you consider the average equity you have vs. a range of reasonable ranges then it is enough to call with.

New to this game, so wanna be sure: Is this a generally 'true' truth or it works for you? So, I should be prepared to get all in w 7722ds?! Even agaist 4 villains?

It's both -- it works for me but it's also a general truth which has statistical backing.

You should note that I was very specific with my wording in that I said it is never correct to fold -- that doesn't mean you should be always raising or trying to get the money in. Most of the time calling will be your best option as as I eluded earlier, double paired hands flop well and are easy to play with great implied odds.

Example: UTG raises, CO 3-bets and we are on the BTN with QQ66ds. If we flat then UTG will also flat most of the time except for when he has the top 3-4% of his range when he will 4bet. We now get to see a flop and if we flop a set or flush most of the time can get our money in very good and if we miss we can fold cheaply. Consider if we 4-bet pre, now we not only have to worry about being 5bet by UTG but also by CO whose range is much stronger and is far more likely to have a hand willing to get it in pre such as aces. Now we have to call it off but instead of having the opportunity to either fold or get our stack in as a 70-80%+ favourite we are essentially breaking even on the hand.

Obviously this is simplified and doesn't take into account the times that we 4bet pre and fold out kings or they both call and we pick up the pot in a situation when we otherwise wouldn't have but those and other similar situations don't compensate for the edge lost by the times we do run into aces or kings.

In general, I would shy away from straying into neutral EV situations in the smaller stakes due to the rake, especially preflop. Opponents ranges are usually so wide, that is nonsensical to get involved with anything else except for solid value (ie. premium hands).

But I do agree with Ribbo and Godlikeroy that calling twopair, doublesuited hands is rarely a mistake preflop, and that is because their playability in big pots is simply so great. You are never faced with a marginal decision with a bottom pair with a player to act, you are nearly never faced with an awkward shove with just the OESD - you nearly always have backup, even if only the four set outs. And preflop, if the worst case scenario tends to be close to neutral EV after the dead money is counted in, there is really no excuse.

Also, the thing to remember, that it's impossible to say what is the +EV play in an exact situation. You do not know opponent's cards. Sometimes shoving double suited aces is a huge mistake due to the dead cards (ie. one or two of your opponents have your outs + better aces), but it's not the cards we are playing, but the ranges. Therefore, if 7722ds is still close to breakeven in the long run and that is the worst case scenario, then playing anything better than that should be at least breakeven as well.