$200 NL HE Full Ring: How many blinds would you call preflop from the button with the following pocket pairs

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peppe94

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Hi guys! I always try to play with all my pocket pairs. With my smallest pairs I try to limp and just call a small raise preflop. Sometimes the raise is so big that I feel forced to fold. I usually play 1/2 $. I’m wondering how many blinds would you call with the following pocket pairs:
22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99.

I’m asking because few times I regretted having called a 20 dollars raise preflop with hands like pocket 3 or pocket 4.
 
Aballinamion

Aballinamion

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Hi guys! I always try to play with all my pocket pairs. With my smallest pairs I try to limp and just call a small raise preflop. Sometimes the raise is so big that I feel forced to fold. I usually play 1/2 $. I’m wondering how many blinds would you call with the following pocket pairs:
22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99.

I’m asking because few times I regretted having called a 20 dollars raise preflop with hands like pocket 3 or pocket 4.
Avoid limping. Either raise or fold'em. Avoid to play small pairs from EP and try to play more small pocket pairs from LP. We are calling from the blinds when the odds are too good that we cannot refuse, for exemplo 3:1, 4:1, 5:1 are pretty good odds and we can call almost always. On the flip side, when the odds are 1.32:1, 1.76:1 or either 2:1 is not so profitable to be calling with small pocket pairs from the blinds.
For example, we are sitting in the big blind with 66. Villain on the button raises to 4x. We fold. Simple as that.
We are in the big blind with 33. Villain on the CO raises to 2x. We call. Simple as that.
We are calling raises at maximum of 3 blinds in a situation like this where both hero and villain are deep stacked. If villain has only 30 blinds and raises 2x, it doesn't compensate, it's better to fold.
Medium pocket pairs is a little bit tricky. 77, 88 and 99 are not so good to 3-bet and not so good to fold. So we are going to 3-bet when our opponent folds a lot to 3-bet and continue calling when we have proper odds such as the case of small pocket pairs.
 
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fundiver199

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The standard guideline for setmining is to have at least 20-25 times left, what you put in preflop. So if the effective stack size is $250, then you dont put in more than $10-12 preflop, if your intention is to strictly setmine. Depending on, where the open come from, and if there are any field callers, 66-99 are not just setmines. They are also hands, that have showdown value in themselfes and play decently well in position.

So against a ridiculous $20 open, which you will sometimes see at 1/2 live, maybe you flat with 88-99 but fold the lower pairs. If the open is to $15, maybe you also call with 77 but still fold 22-66. And so on and so forth. The lowest pairs like 22-44 are kind of trash hands, that tend to lose most people money. So if you basically never played them, your winrate would most likely go up :)
 
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canbora

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Funny. I basically just commented something like this in another thread. I couldn't agree more. I didn't even know this and I already discovered it on my own. Its a bit different in a tourney if your in the CO and you have 12 BB left with 55, obvious shove. But yeah, cash game, they're near trash.
 
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