Baby pairs.

[najisami]

Hello everyone ,

I have a couple of questions about how to play those little pairs. We all know that they could turn into monsters if you flop that set, let alone quads sometimes 🤪, but,

1- Should we play them every time we have them?
2- Only when there's no raise?
3- Only when cheap and in position?
4- Should we raise from any position if folded to us?
5- With a healthy stack, up to how many blinds (raise) would you call a big stack raiser?

PS : The pairs in question are sixes or lower.

 

[TeUnit]

1. no - stack depth and icm matters, you want to have at least 30bb effective stack size to set mine with a small pair
2. no - villan and icm dependent
3. no - villan and icm dependent
4. no - villan and icm dependent
5. depends -- villan and icm dependent

 

[najisami]

1. no - stack depth and icm matters, you want to have at least 30bb effective stack size to set mine with a small pair
2. no - villan and icm dependent
3. no - villan and icm dependent
4. no - villan and icm dependent
5. depends -- villan and icm dependent

Hey man,
Could you elaborate a little on #3 please ?

 

[fundiver199]

1) No sometimes small pairs should be folded preflop
2) No we also sometimes defend small pair to raises
3) No we also sometimes defend small pairs from the blinds
4) No with certain stack sizes like 15-25BB small pairs are mostly an open fold
5) If we are purely setmining, we typically want at least 20x the amount of chips, we invest, in implied odds

This free training video contain a few small pair hand examples:

 

[najisami]

1) No sometimes small pairs should be folded preflop
2) No we also sometimes defend small pair to raises
3) No we also sometimes defend small pairs from the blinds
4) No with certain stack sizes like 15-25BB small pairs are mostly an open fold
5) If we are purely setmining, we typically want at least 20x the amount of chips, we invest, in implied odds

Great input and video, thank you so much.

 

[fundiver199]

Great input and video, thank you so much.

Collin Moshman is also one of the authors of CCs 30-day course. So if you liked the video, you should definitely check that out as well

 

[dreamer13]

These low pairs deceptively appear to be strong hands and often cause a lot of problems for inexperienced players due to the fact that they greatly overvalue them.A small pocket pair preflop will be ahead of the majority of all starting hands, with the exception of higher pocket pairs. However, post-flop play with them will be very difficult if you do not improve in any way.The true power of small pocket pairs lies in the fact that they can improve to a set on the flop.

 

[najisami]

These low pairs deceptively appear to be strong hands and often cause a lot of problems for inexperienced players due to the fact that they greatly overvalue them.A small pocket pair preflop will be ahead of the majority of all starting hands, with the exception of higher pocket pairs. However, post-flop play with them will be very difficult if you do not improve in any way.The true power of small pocket pairs lies in the fact that they can improve to a set on the flop.

Exactly. In general, I think they should only be played when It's cheap to see a flop (And with caution) except in certain situations, short handed in position for example etc...
Thank you for the insight.

 

[najisami]

Collin Moshman is also one of the authors of CCs 30-day course. So if you liked the video, you should definitely check that out as well

I loved that course. Can't find any simpler or easier, yet covering most important poker concepts. Let alone being pleasant as well with the added Katie's humor ingredient...

 

[Suns of Beaches]

You should only play them if no one else folded one (or even 2) of the same rank. Otherwise it will be difficult to make quads or a set.