Small/Mid Pairs

[bigslick98]

I do not know if I am being to aggressive with these types of hands or if this is the way I should play them all the time.

2/4 Paradise. Normal loose/passive, a couple of aggressive types. UTG+1 raises it to 4 and it is folded to me. I three bet it with a pair of sevens. I figure if I am going to win this thing I need to get it heads up. Is this the proper play, because I am certainly not going to get the odds to flop my set.

Second hand:
I am in the cut-off with a pair of threes. It is folded to the guy next to me who open raises. Again, I do not think I am going to get odds to flop a set so I three bet. I feel I need to get this thing heads up or fold the hand.

My questions is, am I playing these right or am I setting myself up to get killed?

Results tomorrow.

[onegymrat]

You are correct about one thing, flopping a set is more than 7 to 1 against, it is not in your favor. Low to middle pocket pairs will probably work better in middle to late position and only if you get in cheap. The raisers preflop before you represent high cards/pairs, so trying to go headsup is to your disadvantage. Let those go and save them for when you get lots of callers and no raises.

[Dynasty]

Unless you are playing against a loose raiser, I would dump the 77 without any hesitation. I'd fold the 33 even against a very loose raiser.

[Ed Miller]

3-betting in both of these situations is better than cold-calling... but against most raisers, I would be mucking here in both situations. With 77, I would sometimes 3-bet if the raiser were a loose raiser. In the 33 hand, I would almost always muck unless I felt the following:

a) the open raiser is a poor player
b) the open raiser will raise with a wide range of hands here
c) I will gain value for future hands if I show the hand down

Well over 90% of the time I would be mucking the 33 in that spot, though.

[lil']

Well over 90% of the time I would be mucking the 33 in that spot, though.
I feel this is correct. I three bet in this spot wayyyy to much, and thinking back on my results, they are fair to poor.

[asdf1234]

I would say that you've got to have pretty good control over a player to play these properly in these situations. You are absolutely correct, you're better off heads up than in say a 3 or 4 way pot.

The problem is that you're either a tiny favorite against overcards or a huge underdog against a big pair. This is where your read on the player comes in. If you can get him to fold at least some of the time when he's ahead, then go ahead, but 33 is really not a good hand to be 3 betting with in my opinion.