I often play in very loose 9 handed cash games where the effective stacks with 8/9 players are generally 100BB+.

Standard 3-4x raise in EP gets 3-4 callers + regularly and where well sized 3 bets in LP and from the blinds occur typically 1 in 3 times where there have been multiple callers. Often the 3 bets sizing deny's the correct odds to call to set mine, and being in EP, you don't know how many other players are gonna call the 3 bet and I'm forced to fold.

I've searched for discussions on playing small pocket pairs but non of then are specific to small pocket pairs in EP, especially in these kind of games.

So, in games like these what do we think the optimum way to play these small pairs in EP?

I rarely rarely limp/call but with these small pairs especially UTG and UTG+1 I have found myself doing it. There are spots when a known creative player will squeeze from LP or the blinds and then fold to my 4 bet putting me on AA-KK limp re raising which is seen quite a bit. I don't want to get into a discussion on limp raising big pairs at this stage because I know most 2+2ers are against it, but I think it does have its place in wilder games.

I'm always mindful that if we limp and get multiple limps behind us and then call a 3 bet that our hand can often be seen as exactly what it is by decent villains and they may not always stack off with their over pairs and TPTK, making our call a leak.

I'm also mindful that opening these small pairs from EP for 4x the BB and getting multiple callers behind and then facing a big 3 bet may well be a leak if I either call or fold.

You may well think that playing these small pairs solely for set value is not the only way to play them and I should be turning them into a bluff post flop on decent boards, but often times, multiple villains will call a Cbet with second pair, call a double barrel with TP, 10's and above regularly, to me it's like lighting money on fire.

I'm just wondering what your thoughts are in these games on the following:

Folding 22-77 pre flop in EP in these games?

Make a larger raise in EP as I would with 1010-AA, AK AQ AJs, KQs the occasional Axs

Limp calling a 3 bet?

What about 88 & 99 in EP? How do we play these?

These loose calling station games pose a bit of problem playing big pairs in EP as a standard open to 3 or 4 BB from EP is likely to get 4 callers plus making them very hard to play post flop OOP against multiple villains, some of which are capable of putting you on TPTK or an overpair and either raise you OTT or 3 bet a second bet on the turn when the board gets a bit more scary or you suspect a set or 2 pr.

Open too big in EP to say 5 or 6 BB's with these big starting hands and everyone folds and you win just the blinds. It's sometimes hard to get the bet sizing right to get up against 1 or just 2 villains.

What happens a lot at these tables is that the value train often starts. UTG or UTG+1 opens EP calls and then everyone behind jumps on the value train with all sorts of holdings and you're multiway OOP. It's great when someone squeezes and you can 4 bet your 1010-AA AK plus other possible hands depending on the squeezer and it's great when you have a small PP and no one 3 bets and you can play to set mine.

Any wise words would be welcome as I'm honestly not sure what the optimum play is in these juicy games.

Limping 22-88 all day at super loose tables. Maybe even pocket 9s. Raise only premiums at these table and raise huge to like 10bb if they keep callig

if there are few good players that are paying attention, you can also get away with small "pot builder" preflop raises as an alternative to limping with small pairs or AXs. We're obviously not going to get many folds, we're just making sure the pot is bigger when we hit. We'll be playing mostly fit or fold postflop out of position and multiway.

Agree min raise rather than limp.

why min raise rather than limp

Puts the blinds to a tougher decision.

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If we are at tables that are being raised the majority of the time, and 3bet 33% of the time they are raised as you say these tables are either very spewy or very tough. And in either I'm generally going to be tightening up my EP range and would likely drop out most smaller pocket pairs.

Minraising rather than limping makes sense but it's extremely exploitative so just be wary.

when you say "loose table" does this mean a lot of people are seeing flops? or there are a lot of 3 and 4 bets pre flop?

if the table is just loose where lots of people are limping and calling pre flop then i probably just raise these hands in EP

if the table has a few guys that 3 bet often i would probably just lean towards limping

It depends on the table but there is often ep and mp raises to 4bb and the whole table calling for value If there are one or two decent aggressive players on the table there will be frequent 3bets

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