Small pocket pairs early in tourney

[Shorty35]

What is the right way to play them when you are (1) in late position (in CO or button) and (2) the action is folded around to you?


limping for set value only seems weak, although raising to capture blinds seems too risky given the size of the blinds relative to stack size at an early point in the tourney

[bigfishead]

the only value in them is making a set and making a huge pot. limp and hope to flop a set with someone getting frisky
post flop. JMO

[Demonator]

I like the limp and pray. If you raise then you look like you are trying to steal, plus by limping and seeing the flop, even if you do not hit, you at least have position on your opponents and see what they do. Also, since everyone else folded in front of you, chances one of the blinds might have a real hand.

[Lloyd]

Depends on what position I'm playing from:

In EP and MP, I'll limp in and fold to a raise playing purely for set value.

In LP, if anybody has raised (other than a mini-raise, I fold. If someone has limped in front of me, I'll limp as well. If nobody has entered the pot I will open for a normal raise. I don't think this happens so often that you're doing it over and over again, and people think you're just trying to steal the blinds. You probably have the best hand so make people pay to see the flop. And just because you missed the flop doesn't mean that you're done playing. They don't know that you have a small pair so you can represent a bigger hand and win some pots that way as well.