To the premise of the thread: There are
- hands that are unhappy multiway (everything with two big unsuited cards except AK, sometimes AQ) and
- hands that are happy multiway that can also be happy shorthanded.
And then, I agree, small pairs are in a class by themselves. I agree that most of the value of 7
6
is in grazing the flop and being able to float or raise aggressively, knowing you can often barrel with decent equity if called. That is, you're not playing 76s
primarily to make a big hand and cooler somebody.
However, if you try to play it HUIP (say, raise one limper in the HJ or CO) and by accident you end up in a 5 way single-raised pot with 100x stacks, you're not that unhappy. You can flop big draws and have expressed (i.e. not implied) odds to play multiway, or sometimes gutshots with implied odds since you're multiway, etc. And if you chase your draw in position on a multiway flop and it does end up HU or 3h you can often revert to semibluff mode on the turn with a lot of dead money in the pot.
In contrast, AJ or KQ has fewer such fallback options, so I designate them as unhappy multiway. If you end up 5 handed, flop top pair, and your flop bet gets 2 or more callers, you may want to consider pot controlling (depending on the board and reads of course).
Small suited aces aren't really volume-loving hands, at least not in the same way as small pairs, because coolering flush over flush is only a small part of their value. Being able to play a NFD aggressively postflop plus have three extra overcard outs is pretty nice; that aggression can benefit from shorthandedness like any other drawing hand. So again, don't seek to play multiway, but if you end up multiway that's tolerable because you have odds to chase flush draws (along with a little IO from the occasional flush over flush).
However multiway on an ace high board small suited aces are dog **** unless no one else breathes on the pot, so they have a reason to prefer fewer players on the flop.