Playing Small Pocket Pairs: + or - EV?

[mxp2004]

Is playing small pocket pairs worthwhile? I don't have enough hands loaded into Pokertracker to evaluate this, and I was wondering whether anyone else does.

In my live play at B&M casinos, I have lost a bunch of big pots playing small pocket pairs when I've hit my set on the flop. I'm finding that these hands can often be counterfeited, on top of the times when you run into set-over-set.

I'd trust someone's Pokertracker stats more than my recent experience in live play, which may be nothing more than short-term variance. So if anyone has any stats on this issue -- including on what the dividing line is (e.g., don't play pairs lower than 77, etc.) -- I'd be grateful.

[Mike Kelley]

I'm a big winner with all my pp's except TT which I tend to overplay and run into JJ,QQ,KK,AA with alot.

[TwoNitty]

I'm up quite a bit with everything except for 22 and 44 over the last 260k at (primarily) 100NL on stars. I think it's just a fluke that those are down.

[XTR1000]

most of my pps are solid winner for 80k hands 100NL on iPoker.

33,55,66 are marginal winner (0.06BB/hand)
77,88 are loser (-0.1/-0.22BB/hand)

[1p0kerboy]

It depends.

[Alpha 5.20]

If you are a decent player all your pockets pairs are supposed to be solid winners over a large enough sample size.

[mxp2004]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm up quite a bit with everything except for 22 and 44 over the last 260k at (primarily) 100NL on stars. I think it's just a fluke that those are down.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interestingly, that range constitutes the pairs where I've been losing the big pots. Putting aside situations where my set eventually loses to something like a straight or a flush, here are some recent examples:

1. Hands: 22 v. J7 v. 97... Board: 2 7 4 7 9

2. 44 v. AA... A 4 K x x

3. 22 v. TT... 2 5 5 5 Q

4. 22 v. 99... 2 9 8 5 K

5. 33 v. AQ... 3 8 Q 8 Q

6. 22 v. TT... 2 T A 8 J

Again, this could all be just variance. However, I'm playing many of these hands multiway in raised preflop pots with deepstacks. Typically, I'm on the Button, or in the CO or the BB, and the raise is usually some standard 1/2 NL raise (like $10 or $12) that's been called in two or more spots. I won't set mine unless the stacks involved have at least $100 on the table.

In any event, I'm wondering whether these hands are not as strong as they seem when I hit the set and there is still a lot of post-flop action.

[Alpha 5.20]

It's pretty obvious that you cant setmine half stack players so just fold it. But at NL100 and NL200 setmining someone with at least 80BB is almost always EV+. Sure you'll loose some big pots vs oversets or flushes sometimes but the overpairs or TPTK that you face most of the time when the money goes more than compensate for that.

[King Spew]

[ QUOTE ]
It depends.... on HOW you play them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Post actual hands.

[CalledDownLight]

I'm a winner with all my pocket pairs. I'm pretty sure its a significant leak if you're not. My money made from pairs is greater than my actual money made.