How to play small pocket pairs

[samircyber9]

Usually small pocket pairs are played for the principal objective of catching
a trio, cause what that happens you have the real potential of earning,
hopefully from someone with a good hand himself, but now exactly should
you play them in the different positions and in different circumstances?
For example, on the button, everyone folds to you? Should u raise you win
right there or just call? What about early position, you call and someone
raises 4BBs? Whats the limit to the amount you should call? Any and all
opinions are appriciated, THANX!

 

[StackThis]

At live cash games limp/call raises as long as you have 15-20xx to felt idiots that stack off with overpairs.

As far as online goes, it's a different animal, I don't give advice on any variant or level of poker I've never beat.

 

[Hermus]

In most situations, open-limping is bad. Even when purely set-mining, you'll turn a greater profit by just open-raising or folding your pocket pairs from any position. There's absolutely no shame in folding your weaker pocket pairs from early position.

As for the situations where you're not the open raiser, calling with speculative hands (like small pocket pairs) can be the correct play. Just be sure that the players left to act, and especially the players in the blinds, are weak passive players. Facing a re-raise is especially bad for small pocket pairs because they often represent a sizeable equity share that you can't cash in unless you improve. Folding small pocket pairs against aggressive players that frequently squeeze is best.

Because I typically don't open limp, I can't give you an answer to your last question. If you follow my advice, you won't need an answer. Just know that the actual dollar amount is irrelevant for these questions. You'll need to consider stack depth, pot-size, bet-size, post-flop tendencies etc. e.g. if you're playing 500bb deep peeling with a marginal hand is typically better than peeling when playing 100bb deep. And calling pre with a pocket pair is better against weak passive players than aggressive players.

 

[Mauricio Perrotta]

I agree with you that the goal of playing small pairs is to trap the opponent, but they can also be played aggressively. For example, if you are heads-up against another player and that player notices that before the raises, he withdraws, raise, because there you have a window to steal chips. You can also play all in, especially when you are forced to recover chips, no matter the position, I do not know the percentage of hands won by a small pair against AK for example, but I assure you that it is a good percentage.
If you have a small pair, and someone after you raises to 4BB, fold. Greetings

 

[ChubbySin]

Best, orthodoxy, practices:

Don´t limp, always open raise.
Raise every hand you decided to play, it fits to connectors as well.
3-bet light, depending on how aggressive you are, can be done with even 22, once ducks are the lowest hand favorite to break AK .
Out of position you just can simply fold, mainly -77.

This is the very basics, these are the situation you will often face at the tables, however, be careful while playing on micro limits, once it is an apart universe and the players, usually, play just for playing and these practices are not, often, applied.

 

[k0k17]

Small pocket pairs are near-zero in early position with a 10bb stack, which isn't too bad when your only alternative is to slowly lose the blinds. When you're under 20bb on the button or in the small blind, it's often best to go all-in with low pocket pairs when you're short-stacked.

 

[YuriDitz]

On the preflop I'll call everything up to 7bb, because if I catch a set on the flop, the pot odds allow us to do that, especially if the opponents have big stacks. Then if I don't get anything on the flop, I'll just fold in response to any aggression.

 

[LOOPY]

I agree with you that the goal of playing small pairs is to trap the opponent, but they can also be played aggressively. For example, if you are heads-up against another player and that player notices that before the raises, he withdraws, raise, because there you have a window to steal chips. You can also play all in, especially when you are forced to recover chips, no matter the position, I do not know the percentage of hands won by a small pair against AK for example, but I assure you that it is a good percentage.
If you have a small pair, and someone after you raises to 4BB, fold. Greetings

My take on pocket pairs is:
I'll play up to 3 BB, to see the flop. If I don't hit will usually fold any bet. after the flop there are only 2 outs to improve your hand. So do you risk a bluff? On AK, there are 6 Outs to improve your hand. So figure out the pot odds and determine the risk of calling any raise.