Local Cas 2/5

Villain: Man in his 50s. Seems like a decent player. Hero has only been at the table an hour and so no solid reads.
Stack is $600. Hero Covers.

The Hand:
Hero dealt 22 in MP and limps
CO Limps
SB (Villain) makes it 15
BB Calls
Hero and CO call

Flop $60
238
Villain bets $20
BB Calls
Hero Calls
CO Calls

Turn $140
T
Villain and BB check
Hero bets $60
CO folds
Villain quickly makes it $160
BB folds
Hero?

Call and gii on any river

Fold pre. Don't limp.

As played shove turn.

He is never folding after raising.

Lead bigger on the turn, in the 90-100 range. AP I think a shove isn't horrible but due to stack sizes this is a bit of an overshove. I like just clicking it back and shoving river.

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WTF? Fold 22 in MP?

OP call and GII on river.

3-bet the turn.

V is telling us that he wants to play for stacks....so let's play for stacks. If V has AhKh, then he is never folding. Let's get the money in the pot.

with the turn bet u have induced the c/r imo. if u click it back or shove now it looks exactly as a set. I would say call and gii otr.

Raise the flop, you already have a bet and a call, youll get action. Your goal ia to be playing for stacks by the river.

With 57 the only real draw raising seems strong enough to fold out overpairs against even semi-competent villains.
3b shoving turn is alright if you're not a total nit. Otherwise if you always show up with sets when shoving turn i guess call and gii on river.

It's a very easy fold pre.

There's a reason you are still at $1/$2.

I'd probably just call.

Yup, and calling the raise to 15 pre means you need to make 150 every time you hit a set for it to be breakeven (assuming you don't win unimproved). I'm oversimplifying it, but my point is that many players overvalue small PP and don't realize how much money they sink every time they don't hit a set.

Fold pre, because of several reasons.

AP
Shove and hope he's got 108 and not 1010

At almost all tables, I'd raise pre

X2 if stacks are relatively deep all around. If average stack under 100bb I'm not raising.

I think 22 is actually worse the deeper the stacks tbh.

As stacks become deeper people get reluctant to stack off with TP.

We will get coolered more then we will cooler them unless they are really bad.

You have the added bonus in that you prob get called down lighter then most players.

But the problems with 22 are.

We miss flop 6/7 times then we have to barrel to win with 10% equity.

If we are taking down the pot pre then its fine but at most $2/$5 tables you aren't going to.

And even when we do hit villian might miss and then we win a small pot.

Small pocket pairs are way overrated and I agree with problemelimator that people don't realise all the small losses add up to more then that one big win and they just write it off when they get oversetted as a cooler.

I actually wouldn't be surprised to see this thread end with us getting coolered.

Raise the turn,
I just won't be able to forgive myself if he turned some sort of combo draw or 2 pair.

shove turn

You need to have more of a read after an hour than he's "decent". You should be able to tell if he's capable of raising a reasonably wide range from the blinds over limps that could include stuff like T8s or if he just always has a tight value range. If he hasn't played any hands in the hour, then it's a really tight range; otherwise you have some info to go on. Generally the 3x OOP should/would indicate a pretty strong range, but you want to correlate betsizing with the specific player if possible.

Open for a raise or fold pre. Openlimping small pairs is maybe OK from EP at a loose passive table.

I think flatting such a dry flop is OK, especially with a player to act behind.

Definitely bet more on the turn. At this point you're not expecting anyone else to show aggression so you need to take the lead. Calling ranges are going to be fairly inelastic to any reasonably sized bet here; depending on table dynamics somewhere around 100 sounds good.

Probably shove the turn. Without more info it's pretty rare he can have air here, which would be the main reason to call. His range is mostly overpairs and TT, maybe big hearts sometimes, occasionally random 2pr; he's pretty much never folding and there are a decent number of cards that could slow down the river action against like KK/QQ.

Bit of a highjack, but just some questions I have about pocket pairs.

What are considered small pocket pairs? 22-55?

If 3-4 people were to limp would it still be O.K. to limp with 22?

Lastly, if we are losing money limping with 22, will we still be losing money limping with 88? Raising with 88? And if not, why?

I consider small pairs to be 55-22.

It's not so much whether 3-4 people are limping its more whether someone behind you will raise. If the answer is yes then you are better off mucking.

We should never open limp from any position except the small blind.

Over limping 88 isn't as bad because we can cooler 77-22 when we both hit sets.

But raising limpers with 88 is superior because we get the dead money (make sure you raise enough so not everyone calls) and we can win a heads up pot unimproved some of the time.

Thanks for the response!

So just to clarify, I should never open limp 22-55 except in small blind even if I know there will be no raises?

^ That's silly to make a black and white statement like that. There are certainly times where open limping is a better option than open raising or open folding. It just depends on the tendencies of the players behind and how the table is playing and stack sizes ect.

Grunchish:

Pre: ya cool. Case can be made for a raise depending on table conditions. Ill limp a lot in that spot. Not sure why anyone is folding. Call raise from SB. Kind a perfect situation as SB raises are often big pairs.

Flop: ummm why are you not raising? If you want any hope of stacking him you need to raise. Once you get to the turn with a small pot getting stacks in starts looking a lot more RIOish.

Turn: still more likely to be heart draw or badly played overpair so gettin it in now is preferable. River if you must.

Could I get examples of some instances, or perhaps what to look for if I decide to open limp/ raise with small pp.

I think some context may help me get a better grasp in understanding.