When is it a good to play small pairs. (8's and lower) Early , middle or late in a tournament. Early, middle, or late position.

late positionm but tou have to know your opponents before. It doesnt matter the stage of tournament.

Originally Posted by amxvulcan

When is it a good to play small pairs. (8's and lower) Early , middle or late in a tournament. Early, middle, or late position.

I would say it depends. You can limp in with them anytime if u feel that, make around 2/2.5BB mini-raise if you are mid or late position. But if u fold them its still okay, these hand requires some BB to be honest to play out wisely.

The most imortant thing that I can advice you to be able to let them go. F.e. if you have a 77 and flop is J,10,4 its no brainer that you're in a bad shape with them. (mini raise here is OK btw, if villain fold its perfect). If you have 77 and flop is A,6,2 it can be some kind of bluff there. If villain call, and turn is something like 10,J,Q,K,A you are not a favourite anymore. If you hit a set with them f.e. 77 and K,7,5 you can push here like you would push a king, or checking to risk it for the turn.

So you can play with them, but slow-play what I can prefer in certain situations, or a fold.

We may do anything with any small pair if you dominate different ways to play with different players actions or at different tables but, first, you must know the poker basics very well (learn to walk and then learn to run)..

Anytime during the game if you're able to just limp with them lol. Hit many sets on the flop doing that. Late position is best I'd think, since you know what most others are already doing. I admittedly do have a bad habit of playing low pairs over aggressively once I get short stacked. Sometimes it pays off, but most of the time it kills me, I'm working on letting go of that compulsion.

I play pairs from 2 to 7 in almost any stage with UTG and cutoff, either a minimum raise or limp. If there are no more than 6 people at the table, these hands become more relevant

I think playing a pocket pair is necessary in any position and does not depend on the stage of the tournament. The main task, is to play it correctly. It depends on the situation at the table. The main rule is the size of your stack and the size of the pot at the table. Which opponent will play against you after the flop. Take all-in risk or not. These are important values, but talking about making a fold with a pocket pair is absolutely wrong!

Small pocket pairs are a drawing hand. I do not interpret them as medium strength hands because they will rarely win a showdown unimproved. We want to see a flop as cheaply as possible. This doesn't mean we must fold to small opening bets, it just means we should not be too eager to build large pots until we have a set.

We play the flop just as we play any missed hand. We can try and get folds if we have fold equity, but we should not be relying on the equity of these small pairs for our decisions. We are turning these hands into bluffs if we start betting them (though it is a bluff with some equity, which is good). Position is as valuable as it ever is and knowing our opponents is just as valuable.

Good luck and God bless.

Originally Posted by NWPatriot

Small pocket pairs are a drawing hand. I do not interpret them as medium strength hands because they will rarely win a showdown unimproved. We want to see a flop as cheaply as possible. This doesn't mean we must fold to small opening bets, it just means we should not be too eager to build large pots until we have a set.

We play the flop just as we play any missed hand. We can try and get folds if we have fold equity, but we should not be relying on the equity of these small pairs for our decisions. We are turning these hands into bluffs if we start betting them (though it is a bluff with some equity, which is good). Position is as valuable as it ever is and knowing our opponents is just as valuable.

Good luck and God bless.

Thanks. That was very helpful!

It really depends on how much it costs to play, personal stack size, number of players with chips in normally more is better with low pockets and timeframe of tournament.

Short stacks & late position i select all-in preflop.

Early stage or gun position is the worst time to play small pairs.

I've seen hands with 77 vs. KK or AA, all in preflop. Thanks to the variance, they get a set or poker.
the ideal is to confirm a set on the flop.

You can play small pairs from any position at any stage. It all depends on the size of your stack. In the beginning and middle stages, limp with small pairs from early and middle position. Call if a regular raise is made against you if you have a comfortable stack. When playing small pairs in early and middle position, you will often take a good pot if you catch trips.

I don’t like playing with these cards.

The Flop, on the other hand, can be watched with them.

Early in the tournament if all stacks are equal. If I can’t limp in and see if I get a set on the flop I will fold to large bets preflop. Small pairs have good showdown valve head up post flop. So generally play them if I’m deep stacked against smaller stack heads up both for fold equity and value
If I’m ultra short stack at the middle of the tournament I’m likely shove a small pair all in

these bottom split pairs on or bracketed pocket pairs <2nd pair( ) are often used as flop check raises . they have enough power so that they can gain equity on various turns those time it gets checked behind and doesn't mind folding to a flop 3 bet. And they hold their own vs weak hands that miss turn and trash hands that doesn't have much run out equity that Vill mistakenly held on to as a flat to your sized check raise. and don't worry about those spots too much as the check raise will deny vill significant equity and as such will have terrific fold equity vs his over valuing of his trash range.

Originally Posted by amxvulcan

When is it a good to play small pairs. (8's and lower) Early , middle or late in a tournament. Early, middle, or late position.

Interesting - a lot of people suggesting to limp from any position - I disagree 100%. Maybe I'm not as smart as others - but if players always limp these hands it seems logical other players will pick up on that and easily 3bet in late position with any 2 cards.
I prefer to raise standard - just as I would QQs or A/K - if our stacks are reasonably deep.
When the stack is short - I just dump these hands from EP because it is really just a waste of 1-2 blinds - when you can wait for a better spot with a stronger hand.

Also I think it is important to note small pockets are considered 22-66 medium pockets are 77-99 and big pockets are considered TT+. I might be off by one in these rankings - I would not classify 77s as medium - in my mind they are still small, and TTs could be considered medium.

Medium pockets demand a standard open in all positions - in my opinion, but 22-55 are often dumped by me in EP - unless we are playing 100+ bb deep.

GL

Depending on which stage of the tournament you are in an early stage of troneo, it is best to do it regardless of the position in the middle part of the tournament in middle or final positions, in the bubble in the final position and in the last stage early position always taking carethe chips without risking 3% of the chip stack

I play them when the stacks are deep enough to provide good implied odds and when stacks are short enough to justify shoving. In the middle phase stacks are often too short for set mining and too much just to shove so I throw them away.

Position matters too, as always. Effective stack needs to be much shorter to open shove in early positions. And my implied odds need to be larger to play them from earlier positions when stacks are deep, since there is much less of a chance of a steal and a higher chance of facing a 3-bet.

I don't like to limp with small pairs except in late position facing multiple limpers and there's a good chance I won't get raised.

I like to play small pocket pairs when I'm the leader of the chips at the table.