small pairs and such?

[jomatty]

recently i was playing with a friend in a 1-2 no limit game. we were chatting about my starting hand selection which i thought had gotten way too loose. i am in the habit of routinely limping in with any pair, in any position, unless the game is extremely extremely aggressive. i also will often play a hand like QTs from early-middlish position. ive never questioned this, especially the small pairs.

am i crazy here. my friend (whos opinion i respect greatly, and who is a winning mid-high player) disagrees with the small pairs and strongly disagrees with hands like QTs in early and mid postion. starting hands are obviously very subjective in nl but i would be curious what you guys default on this is, and if my thinking is off base.

matt

[Captain Awesome]

Check out the UTG hand range thread

[jomatty]

thank you that thread was great and helpful. im looking for some folks hand ranges in full games though. perhaps i can just treat utg as mid position but the different dynamics of short handed tables makes that not totally accurate.

anyone feel like sharing any info on how they handle these situation in full ring games?


thx
matty

[WotaWaster]

Probably should post this in the full ring forum.
Anyway in my experience at <$200NL full ring games limping with any pocket pair in early-mid position and calling a raise to play for set value in preferably a multiway pot is the best option.
Obviously once you get to late position and the pot is unopened you should be raising any hand you play including 22+ and suited connectors/1 gappers.

I would fold suited connectors in early position as they are harder to play OOP than small pairs. You will frequently flop a draw and if you check-call a flop bet and then check turn you will often face another bet.
Check-raising flop then checking turn is also less likely to get you a free river than had you raised in position.
It is also harder to extract value from OOP if you hit your draw.