How do you play small pocket pairs facing a pre-flop min raise

I commonly find myself in this situation, all be it at 2nl, but even so I want to get some advice on the correct way to play this hand. Most of the time I call the min-raise and see the flop, but this could easily be the wrong play.

In this situation, I'm not confident in any of my choices. I really just don't know how to approach the hand.

• Should I fold
• Should I call the min-raise
• Should I 3-Bet

Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about.
Poker Stars - $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em (6 players)
Poker Stars Hand Converter Tool from CardsChat.com

SB: $9.32
BB: $2.45
UTG: $0.99
MP: $1.46
CO: $1.60
BTN Hero: $3.80

Pre-flop: ($0.05) Hero is BTN and dealt
UTG folds, MP calls $0.02, CO raises $0.02, Hero calls $0.04, 2 folds, MP calls $0.02

Flop: ($0.15) (3 players)
MP checks, CO bets $0.06, Hero folds, MP folds, CO returned $0.06

Final Pot: $0.15

Showdown:
BTN mucks his hand
Outcome: CO wins $0.15

I don't like 3 betting here because normally the raiser calls and you're looking at the same situation except you have just put in a decent part of your stack in the pot and all you got is an underpair. To win, you have to get the other guy to fold, and at 2NL? Good luck with that. If he has J10 in this spot, he's likely calling ya down.

I normally call here because this gives SB and BB a chance to see the flop cheap. With a small pp, you basically wanna see the flop as cheaply as possible, flop a set and hopefully the other guy hits top pair or something.

You decision here is very opponent dependent.

As far as 2NL goes, I pretty much agree with blueskies. Call and if you flop a set vs. top pair, you'll double through your opponent. So long as your opponent has about 40BB+ (15-20x the opening bet) in his stack, this is a winning play long term.

If you've noticed you're opponent has a tendancy to fold to a single cBet, or often folds to 3bets, making a smallish 3bet here to $0.10-$0.12 is a good option, as you'll often win the pot with a cBet on the flop. But, seeing as this is 2NL, you certainly can't do that readless.

Folding preflop is never an option here.

Ok thanks guys, good advice.

What if its not a min-raise but a 3-4x BB raise? At what point do you fold these small PP's?

Against a single raiser putting in a standard raise, with anywhere near full stacks (effective), you should never fold them preflop. If he's a shorty and putting in half his stack for the raise, you may not have the implied odds to call unless he's just been spewing like a whale, so maybe you fold. Maybe.

As someone else said, it's highly villain-dependent. But no way do I see folding for a standard raise when I have any decent implied odds.

you can fold pre when the blinds are squeezy as CO rarely has a strong range.

If stacks are deep enough, I'm fine with a 9bb squeeze too, especially if I think opener will call as well. If I hit my set I've got 2 fish on the line, with a better chance of keeping at least one of 'em in the pot, plus a SPR that makes it much easier to ship it and get called.

Well, I said:

But I pretty much never fold small pocket pairs on the button.

At my stakes, I tend to get creative on the button and will flat call or 3bet a larger raise depending on the opponent. If he often folds to 3bets, I'll do that. If he plays pretty straight forward and rarely cBets, I'll win a good percentage of the flops by betting when he checks the flop, raising cBets on a dry board, or floating and betting the turn.

That said, in 2NL I want effective stacks of roughly 15-20x his opening raise (ie 45-60BB if he opens to 3BB or 60-80BB if he opens to 4BB). On the button, I usually would be happy on the low side, as I'll have a tonne of options for winning the pot post flop, even if I don't flop a set.

The thing about a flat call on the button here is it is a very safe play. You get to see the flop relatively cheap and if your set does hit a lot of players (especially at this level) will just miss putting you on that. If you miss you bow out gracefully and wait for another shot.
Speculative investment (and losing that investment) is just part of poker