$2 NLHE 6-max: In The Cutoff With a Pair of 33(s)

I have to admit, playing small pairs is always a difficult decision for me. Ive heard everything from folding to raising, not to mention calling. Honestly, regardless of the situation, folding a pair of 22(s) or 33(s) almost always feels like the right thing to. I would like to get your opinion on the replay below and also maybe somebody can provide a guideline for playing low pairs in general . thanks in advance.

https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/2qdtJuo

Im never folding this on a late position , its an open min raise for me

I would as a standard not open lower PP then 66 in UTG or MP. Especially at micros with very limited fold to CB by villains, you just risk spewing a lot PF so I would label it as self protection.

Things to look at that make you wanna open it:
1) tendency of table to get multi-way meaning likelihood of getting paid when flopping a set.
2) Chance of just stealing the blinds
3) willingness but opponents to fold to CB
4) chance of getting squeezed or 3B OOP
5) stack sizes of villains at table

To me in NL2 its profitable even open in 9 handed UTG 22-33. So if its microstakes or only recreational and weak regs after you you should open. In microstakes Im only folding vs raise then I`m in SB.

$2 NLHE 6-max: In The Cutoff With a Pair of 33(s)

Alot to think about here. Feels like there could be a broad range of answers depending on the situation.
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply.
Nice breakdown 0815!

The fold you made seems right to me. The reason is that you are out of position. There are still 3 players left behind you. For which, your combination does not have an adequate defense capability in the preflop. When to play low pairs? Well, in response to your question, I could answer that, in principle, you can defend your low values, when you have to pay an economic price for them. And that happens mostly when you are in the BB, since it is the last position that plays in preflop. From there, you have the opportunity to enter the boat with your low couples, with a price that is fixed and that you can see that it is small or economical (it offers you good pot odds).
As you have a deeper stack, you acquire greater capacity to defend your low pairs, from other positions and with greater comfort.
Also the defense capacity of small couples depends on the characteristics of the table and the active players in the hand. For example, if at the table, you know that villains are very aggressive, and that they constantly perform raises, in these cases, your low partners should have less exposure, to the risk of continuous increases. On the other hand, if you find yourself at a passive table, where there are very few increases in preflop, small pairs may have greater frequency of play.
The number of players participating in a table is also another factor to consider, for the inclusion in preflop of small couples.
If you are at a table of 4 players in total, there is a greater chance of including those values ​​in preflop. The opposite occurs at a table that has many players.
Regards.

When I first checked by database from pokerstars 22-44 were actually losing me money. So having a starting point of not playing these hands is not the worst thing in the world. They tend to perform a lot worse in real live, than people assume. However that being said when it fold to you in CO, any pair is certainly playable. There is a big difference between raising first in and calling to setmine, because you have a chance to take the blinds home uncontested, or take it home on the flop with a C-bet.

Very nice question!

stil370 said:

I have to admit, playing small pairs is always a difficult decision for me. Ive heard everything from folding to raising, not to mention calling. Honestly, regardless of the situation, folding a pair of 22(s) or 33(s) almost always feels like the right thing to. I would like to get your opinion on the replay below and also maybe somebody can provide a guideline for playing low pairs in general . thanks in advance.

https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/2qdtJuo

Click to expand...

Good morning stil370 how are you? First of all, thanks for your question is a very good one. Second of all thanks for being here at CardsChat with us, it is very good to see that there are people trying to learn, and CardsChat is simply the best.
This question is very good because everybody says it is good to play Small Pocket pairs, but in reality, they are very hard time to play postflop, because most of the boards will have overcards. So, when do we play Small Pocket pairs? (22-77)

A) Out of position

We can open 22-77 from UTG, BUT, if you are playing 100 NLHE or above. Even so, if you decide to play 22-77 from UTG (or EP as well), you gotta have a very good information about who are the players in the MP, CO and BTN. You raise 22-77 from EP because your primary intention is to play in position versus a weaker player that you saw in the blinds (SB or BB). When you raise 22-77 and get called by MP or BTN, it is harsh. When you got a 3bet is a instant fold. This is how I play, I can be wrong, if I am, please, anybody correct me.

B) In Position

In position, the ideia is the same: we can open 22-77 from CO when we are almost 100% sure the player in the BTN will not 3bet our range in the moment. And when we have a decent percentage of fold equity either from BTN and SB or BB also, because we want only one caller out of position so we can try to bluff the Flop cheaply, no matter if we hit our set or not, because we can use the secret powers of position.

C) From the SB

Here I elect to call for setmining when I have gigantic implied odds. For instance, spots where players limp and I have to pay 0,5 blinds for a pot of 3, 4 or even more blinds (being certain the player in the BB is not a crazy squeezor, because if so, we need to reevaluate our call for odds.
The same goes when it comes a mini-raise (from a player with a decent stack, like 60 BB or more Effective Stack), we call down in the SB for setmining.
Now, against 3x raises I am folding a lot 22-77 from the SB, even when it seems that I have the proper odds. Even if, for example, UTG raises 3x, MP calls, CO, calls, BTN calls. I am not calling down here everytime. (remember that I am talking about the micro-stakes).
If somebody disagrees, please feel comfortable to put your ideias.

D) From the BB

Here, I elect to call a little bit more than the SB. Because there is no one else to talk after my call and I can choose the proper odds or situation. It will depend on many factors such as player type x stack sizing.
For example if comes a raise of 3.5x from UTG and the UTG player has 300 BB+ Stack size and the BTN calls with a 250 BB Stack sizing and Hero in the BB got 22-77, also with 200 BB Stack sizing, I believe it is a good call, because I believe one of this guys will not leave strong pocket pairs (TT+) or TPTK.
However, when I am Hero in the BB with only 100 BB Effective Stack, I am folding to 3x, 3.5x and 4x. I am just calling mini-raises, because, at the micros, we cannot call that much as we think we should.

E) 3bet? 3bet light?

I am never making any kind of 3bets with 22-77 no matter the situation. If I were playing 500 NLHE or higher, than I could think about a 3bet light, but 100 NLHE and under we gotta be very attentive and avoid fancy moves.

Regards;

Carlos 'Abalinamion' Barbosa