A cold call is a perfect strategy for small pairs play, if you hit a set and there's many limpers preflop you will made a Huge pot.
Raising with those hands may be very dangerous if your opponent hold a better pair.
So limping is a good strategy for small pairs and for all speculative hands in the firsts levels of a tournament.
some suited connectors better to play in MP call,if u belive in strong open raise from EP, small pairs giving much money at cash as set value, but at tournament in my opinion u may use it when your stack is 40bb+, and usually it's not
when you are in EP or MP with some pairs like JJ, TT, 99 is better to check because if one or two the next players (specially a tight one) reraise or shove you are going to be in trouble
Why did you flat call that hand? (I Had trips, villain had top pair).
Simple. If I was to raise over him, he may fold & therefor I don't get a proper read on his range.
It is good to throw in a flat call with a good hand now and then just to give people the idea that you don't always make the same moves (goes to being unreadable).
Calling with a strong hand in position can get you more value on later streets but don't fall into a habit of doing this because free cards can hurt you. If I am going to call with a draw, I definitely want to be in position. Out of position I recommend raising or folding most of the time but you can call with medium to strong hands just to try and control the size of the pot or monsters against over aggressive players to let them bluff off their stack. Basically, have a good reason for calling and have a plan for later streets. Most of the time stay aggressive.
you never just call? there has to be some situation... i find that if i either raise or fold i just waste chips when i get reraised and i have kq etc and i cant call