Playing small pairs.

[ImpulseKid]

In 6max cash games i am open raising any pair in any position other than the blinds. When reraised i will call to break someone as long as i am gettin the appropriate implied odds. However, i am not sure if this is neccesarily profitable. I am going to list a a few situations and would like to see how you guys feel is correct to play (maybe im playing correctly already [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img])

Ok so lets assume in each situation the effective stacks are $200 and that there are 6 players at each table. Well also assume no info on any players.

Hand 1.

You raise UTG with 66 to $8 and are reraised on the button to $28, do you call?

Hand 2.

UTG raises to $8, CO reraises to $24, you are on the button with 33, do you call?

Hand 3.

You raise to $8 on the button with 55, BB reraises to $28, do you call?

Currently i will call in all 3 situations and only play after the flop if i hit my set. I am concerned that with such loose reraising ranges these days that i am often not going to break players when i hit my set...

[Bramsterdam]

1) Fold
2) Fold
3) Usually fold, sometimes call but not to play fit/fold

[viper930]

1. fold
2. fold
3. fold

[billybeartku]

I fold hand 2. call others

[nazahl]

i'd fold em all

first hand - its hard to extract w/ a set oop

second hand - calling here is pretty bad for a couple reasons. first your implied odds suck to begin with and you don't know whether utg or the blinds are gonna 4bet/shove/whatever when it gets to them.

third hand - probably the closest to a call but its a pretty decent sized 3bet. assuming the average 200nl player is gonna have a pretty wide range in this spot, ur just not gonna get paid enough when you do flop a set.

[ImpulseKid]

Ok so how big does our pair have to be in these situations to make the call, or are we never calling and always folding or reraising?

Also, in position to a single raise to $8, with $200 behind, are we flat calling this raise with low pairs or are we reraising?

[Chicago Twister]

Its not just a function of how big our pair is to call for set value (actually, its not a function of that practically at all), but of how deep the stacks are. The rule of 5/10 is out of date. It should be more like the rule of 3/7.

[shandyboy]

Hand 1: I fold, its hard to extract the correct implied odds OOP. If u are only playing for set value its a fold.

Hand 2: Fold, UTG may come back over the top. Also, u are investing 12BBs, if u are only playing for set value, u need to stack the guy every time u hit, ie. the 1 in 7.5 times u hit, u need to stack villain. This is -ev.

Hand 3:Closest to a call, but i fold. Is villain 3betting light? If so, less likely to get set value. If i call, I need to be confident on my post flop game when i dont hit a set.

[scv]

If you dont know what you're doing you should be folding all of these. If you have a good read and feel like you can outplay villain you can call in hand #1 and #3. Calling hand #2 is almost never right in these stakes unless the stacks are huge and villains are donks.