Obviously the 8 goes in the middle. But do I have a better shot of two pair placing the 5 up top and leaving two spots open in the middle, or placing 5 in the middle? How does this change if there was only one 5 and one 3 left?
If no (or even 1) 5's are dead you should put the 5 in the middle. Notice there are no completely live running cards for a pair except for Ace (at least 1 of each rank accounted for). Even if you had an extreme example of 5 live running pairs then you should still place the 5 in the middle with 3 5's live.
There is an excellent series on OFC P on RIO by Jen Shahade that delves into situations like this.
If no (or even 1) 5's are dead you should put the 5 in the middle. Notice there are no completely live running cards for a pair except for Ace (at least 1 of each rank accounted for). Even if you had an extreme example of 5 live running pairs then you should still place the 5 in the middle with 3 5's live.
There is an excellent series on OFC P on RIO by Jen Shahade that delves into situations like this.
+1. Live card almost always better than space for a pair, especially 3 handed.
