How do you tend to play low pockets in MTTS in the early stages? I really struggle with them!

Any tips would be helpful.

Get in cheap, be good at hitting sets

Deep stacked, you set mine. Maybe with low flops (T high or lower) you can throw out a c bet and try to take the pot down. If I opened, I’ll occasionally c bet bluff on an ace high dry flop, but I’m not betting again if called.

Early in tournaments, people see flops with wider hodlings, and call wider (due to no ICM pressure). Tables are full.

All those factors together mean that you have lower fold equity and lower showdown equity with your small pockets. They should only be played for a good price as a set mine (you need to be confident that you can get paid at least 10 to 1 on your call).

By the way, most players set mine or overplay small pockets too much.

The danger here is that early in MTT's, there is no such thing as a dry flop. you will get people trying to see a flop with a wide range, including Axs, and suited connectors\one gappers.

That’s why I said sometimes. If I open, I get heads up and it’a a dry flop, it would seem that I’d have enough fold equity with a bet that it would be profitable to take a stab. I’m not talking about shoving 50-60 bb or anything thing dumb like that, but a 1/3 pot sized bet only would have to generate a fold 25% of the time to break even, and that’s assuming my small pair will never be good (or I’ll never hit the set on a later street). I have a hard time believing a board like A73r would not be a good board to take such as stab at, especially if you have second pair like 88. If he calls, his range is narrowed and it’s much more likely he has an ace, which is why I said I’d only single barrel.

You said it yourself, villains will call with all kinds of hands early in a tourney. Why would you assume that in a heads up spot, villain would only call a raise with Ax? Sure that’s in his calling range, but so are lots of other hands that don’t have an ace.

If you raise and get 3-4 callers, then yes, I agree, a cbet is likely futile.

so this is interesting, I've been thinking about this.
AFAIK solvers fold small PPs because they don't block folding range/we steal blinds less often and solver plays perfectly post.
However, people don't play perfectly and a lot of people under3b bb and it feels like small PPs might significantly benefit from these particular realities. We're gonna realize more equity than we should basically and PPs hit well (+it helps on low flops that generally favor passive player pre).

Im not sure this is right and I generallly still fold small PPs a lot, but it's worth reconsidering, esp live.

Set mine - unless it gets really wild preflop with raise sizing compared to your stack size.

Typically if you don't have a set get out.

Some boards where you get 2nd pair or top pair depending on action and villians you can check/call a few streets and occasionally have the best hand still by the river.