Calling raises with small and mid pairs early?

[Vetstadium]

Have a question I think part of my game could be improved, I always fell to see the flop with any pair early in tourn even with raise of 125 chips, but now am reconsidering should I only call the raise if it is less than 10% of my stack since that is comparable to odds of hitting set. It just seems I call lot of 100 chip raises early and easily muck them when I miss my set. Yes it is nice to hit a set and double up. Was wondering what your requirements are for calling raises early in these situations thanks.

[texasrattlers]

Lee Jones and at least one other "pro" has written that you can call w/ low/mid pockets for up to 1/15 of your stack. This is the rule I stick to. I don't lose too many chips if I don't hit my set, I can still call small raises, and I give myself the chance to take down a big pot if I do hit my set.

[Irieguy]

Cold-calling raises with small-mid pairs in SNGs is generally much worse than folding. There are always exceptions... mostly relating to when you are a big stack and have a nice implied price from another big stack.

But if you are routinely calling raises with 10-10 and below, you are hemorrhaging chips.

Irieguy

[Gramps]

10% of your stack is way too much under most circumstances. Sometimes when you hit your set, you get someone to go all-in and double up. More times than not, you get a lot less action. Sometimes, you literally get zero action...your "average action" is probably a lot less than the size of your stack (depends somewhat on the level of SNG you're playing). If there's been a raise and some calls in front of you (or you limp along with a lot of others behind you, there's a late raise and you think it will be a family pot if you call), then you can call off a higher % of your stack then when it looks like the pot may be shorthanded.

Also, don't forget that sometimes, you hit your set yet lose many/all of your chips. Even if this were to happen, say only 1/10 of the time you hit a set, that significantly reduces your average gain per time your set is hit (one big negative versus some small and big positive gains, all averaged together).

Also, a % of the time you coldcall, there will be a big reraise behind you and you won't even get to see the flop...so take that into consideratino as well.

[tigerite]

Pretty much agree with all of the above. I will usually call on level 1 for a min-raise ONLY and even then only in late position or on a very passive table (which is usually impossible to tell by then, unless it's the last, or second-to-last hand of level 1).

[housenuts]

I will usually limp with 55+ in EP. And limp with any PP in MP and LP. This being at the early levels when blinds aren't high. This also being at Poker Stars where I have 1500 chips and can afford to lose some. When faced with a raise unless there are alot of callers or I'm isolated against one opponent I will fold. I can't really get my words out the way I want to right now. It's 420am, I'm going to bed.

[tigerite]

Yeah, at Party your stack simply isn't big enough to do this. I'll limp from EP with small pairs only if it's a really passive table, or lots of min raising going on, otherwise it's 99 and above for me. From late position is when I play pretty much any pair. Mid position I might drop my standards to 77 and 88, it depends.

[Vetstadium]

Thanks for the input it seems I may be calling with these too often, still do decent but want to improve my game will limit it to what I have read and go from there.

[Vetstadium]

Thanks for the input it seems I may be calling with these too often, still do decent but want to improve my game will limit it to what I have read and go from there.