Joined: Aug '10
Location: Germany
Age: 52 (M)
Posts: 2219
Midpairs are not monsters and normally i made potsize bets with them for fold equity. This kind of cards are verry strong to play at the flop etc. So i make big bets with them and hope that the opponent fold and when not i have two big outs
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
Posted by jessthehuman: IMO - part of the value of small pockets pairs generally has to be steal-equity, it's rare you'll get enough equity just from set-mining - you simply don't stack your opponent often enough to make it profitable if you're only ever winning when you hit your set.
What this means in practise is two things:
A) Position - If you want to have reasonable shot of stealing post-flop when you miss your hand, then you really need to have position.
B) Opponent - how loose is your opponent and how likely are they to stack off on an over-pair/TPTK type hand? If they're a maniac, particularly if they're a bad player as well - then playing to hit your set only is fine and even playing OOP is fine here, since you're only looking to hit a set anyway. If your opponent is a bit wiser - then you may want to think about folding every time OOP and when in position, try and find good spots to steal sometimes. Also - against a better opponent, sometimes you're better off calling 3-bets with small pps if stacks are deeper enough - the fact is, in a 3bet pot you're far more likely to be up against QQ+ AK+ type hands that are a LOT more likely to pay you off when you hit your set.
That. +1
Value of small pairs:
1. hitting a set 2. stealing the pot (33% your opponent make a pair on the flop and you're usually ahead) 3. deepstacked, great value in raising in early position to take the blinds (and appear strong, and still hope to hit,) and fall back on continuation bet for reason number 2. If that doesn't work, give up.
Edit: Whoever said 20% of their stack up there needs to bone up on their math or play "Go Fish".
