Quote:
Originally Posted by samdash
Take a page out of Mason's book and don't raise pre from the small blind with medium pocket pairs.
The reason to raise with sevens is that by making the pot larger you often entice someone to call down calling essentially dead if you flop a set. Assuming the big blind calls, you’ll be getting 7-to-1 on a 7.5-to-1 shot (remember you already have half a small bet in on the small blind and you will occasionally lose when you flop a set.) So you cost yourself a little EV before the flop hoping to make it up plus more after the flop:
However, in these spots a pair of sevens can sometimes win without improving, usually when a small flop comes, and when this happens you don’t want to be giving the right odds for an opponent(s) to take cards off.
So even though a pot manipulation argument exists to raise, in my opinion, a stronger argument exists not to raise. However, with a smaller pair like 33, that is less likely to win without improving, it can switch back to a raise. Also, if in late position (and there are several players in) the raise can make more sense, even though it costs a little more, because of the tendency of many players to check to the raiser. Now you bet the set and often have the option to take a free card which is another five percent chance to make a set.
Mason