Playing small pairs in Cash games

NickyOD

For what price should you fold a small pair in a cash game?

I've read that you should fold to a raise of more than 4BBs unless its multihanded and also only against large stacks so that you have the implied odds of getting paid off when you hit your set. This makes sense to me, however I've read on so many post from successful cash game players that contradict this. They will call much bigger raises with baby pairs even Heads up. The line has to be drawn somewhere but where and why?

Thoughts?

Hectorjelly

It makes no diffference what size the raise is, what matters is what % that is of the lower of your and his stacks it is, and how strong his hand is.

NickyOD

Hectorjelly wrote:

It makes no diffference what size the raise is, what matters is what % that is of the lower of your and his stacks it is, and how strong his hand is.

So what % of his stack is too much when calling a raise with a small pair?

Shortstack

You need to be pretty sure what he is likely to be holding when he raises so much. Is he a player who is scared of his/her AA/KK getting cracked and raises too much or is it some one who raises big with AK/AQ. More difficult is it someone who raises big with baby to mid pairs? You need to be as sure of his hand as possible and also he/she needs to be able to (and willing to) give you over 8:1 on the raise if you hit your set (so you both need at least 8* the raise left behind). Actually it is probably less if you are accurate with your reads and take the pot after the flop enough times when you miss.

Yours Sincerely

Mr Vague.

NickyOD

Someone on another forum suggested 10% of your oponents stack. Maybe I'm wrong but this just seems too loose to me.

If you have position and you play it well against the raiser then I can understand a call with any pair, but out of position against a good tight aggressive player I think I'd have to be looking no further than a 4BB raise assuming he is sitting with about the standard max buy in. With the 11.8% chance of flopping the set you need to win more than 8 times the preflop raise atleast once for every 8 times you miss. This doesn't take into account the times your set gets cracked by a flush or a straight or when you lose your knickets in a set over set situation, so making this call in a particularly loose game is obviously much easier. I generally fold a pair 77 or lower to raise of 5BBs or more unless I'm up gainst more than 1 oponent but perhaps that is too tight against a player with a lot of chips since set potential is so important in cash games.

mewso

It's a tricky one because I would imagine for the average player the bigger the raise the lower the strength of the hand. With one exception if he goes all-in you are up against the nuts of course.

Hectorjelly

If a very tight player raises utg then 10% is probably just about right, if a normal player raises on the button then I think you probaly need for it to be 5%, or less.

In a tournament I tend to stick to 10% becuase players tend to commit them selves post flop with AK/AQ even if they dont hit, whereas this doesnt happen so much on cash games.