Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

Just curious because I ran into these situations a couple of times today...What do you do in these scenarios?

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is MP2 with 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
2 folds, <font color="#cc0000">UTG+2 raises</font>, 1 folds, Hero ???

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is MP2 with 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]
1 folds, UTG+1 calls, 2 folds, Hero calls, 1 folds, <font color="#cc0000">CO raises</font>, <font color="#cc0000">Button 3-bets</font>, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls, Hero ???

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is UTG+1 with 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]
1 folds, Hero calls, 5 folds, <font color="#cc0000">Button raises</font>, <font color="#cc0000">SB 3-bets</font>, <font color="#cc0000">BB caps</font>, Hero ???

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

Hand one is a fold. You want lots of people in with a PP to make up for all the times you won't flop a set.

Hand two is possibly a fold the first time round and probably a call second time around. You've got 4 people going to flop plus the dead money from the blinds.

Hand three is a raise pre-flop but as played is a fold, too much money.

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

I fold 1 and two because of the potential that a) the action behind be may get stiffer than the hand is worth and/or not enough players will stay in to support the set value.

I raise number 3 and consider my options on the flop.

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

Didn't see it was 2 back to us in hand two, that's going to make it a fold. If there were 1 or 2 more people in when it got back to me I would most likely call.

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

3 would be a call if you had correctly raised the first time.

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

The idea behind small pairs is that you want to flop a set, which is rare (1 time out of 8.5) so you need 7.5:1 to call, strictly speaking. Usually we rely on implied odds, the fact that we're going to make up a couple small bets after we make our set. So we this is usually reduced to 5:1. In all cases, you are not getting the proper odds to justify calling any of these pairs.

As others have said, you are raising 99 the first time because you have a chance to get it with 1-2 players, in which it may perform well as a pair on its own (or by chance, improve to a nice set). When it comes 3 bets back to you, not only is it highly likely that there is a bigger pair, you are certainly not getting the odds to call in order to flop your set.

Cheers,
Buzz

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

Fold all three the way they were played.

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

Hand 1: Fold

Hand 2: Fold first time, probably fold 2nd. SSH says if you have one more opponent you can call the 2nd time but with only three I'm thinking dump it.

Hand 3: Often I raise preflop. Fold after that crazy action.

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hand two is possibly a fold the first time round and probably a call second time around. You've got 4 people going to flop plus the dead money from the blinds.



[/ QUOTE ]

If it doesn't get capped, we are getting 11.5:2 and we need 15:2. We need to make up 3.5 small bets.

If it does get capped, we are getting 13.5:3, we need 22.5:3. We need to make up 9 small bets. If we consider that this gets capped 1/3 the time, we are looking at making up 6 small bets post-flop. Sometimes we flop set &amp; they do too in which case we lose a lot.

Buzz

Re: Cold-calling w/ small pocket pairs preflop?
 

raising 99 from early position is right then? SSH says thats only possible in loose games... well, it was a loose game anyways.