Small Pairs and Medium Suited Connectors

[LoneGuard]

I'm trying to get through HEPFAP, and on page 28 David and Mason are talking about small pairs and medium suited connectors in terms of them playing well in multiway situations. They even say that those hands require multiway action.
I apologize if the answer is somewhere in the next 10 or a 100 pages, but I couldn't find the justification in the immediate vicinity, so I'm asking here: why do they need the multiway action?
Wouldn't the odds be against you if more players were in the pot?

Any help would be appreciated.

[tablecop]

By "do well" it is meant they earn money not necessarily have a high win%. small pairs also "do well" headsup but against multiple opponents you almost certainly need to spike a set on the flop and you need many opponents (maybe 4) to justify chasing that. similarly for medium suited connectors, you want many opponents to ensure someone will pay you if you hit your baby flush or straight.

[steamboatin]

That is a good answer. I have never really understood why either. I guess that makes it a good question and a good answer.

[umdpoker]

this is fairly common sense. since you will flop a straight/flush draw very rarely, you need to have a big pot to make up for all of the times you miss. also, i think small pocket pairs can handle more action preflop, since they are pretty much flop or drop hands, whereas you will usually just flop a draw to a str8/flush, and therefore spend more money trying to hit the draw. preflop and flop bets are cheap. since they double after this, you really want to have your hand by the turn. this of course, is only true in limit.

[Noo Yawk]

Hi Loneguard,

Small pairs win money in multiway pots because you are looking to flop a set or better (aprox 7.5 to 1). These can be played multi-way and can stand a raised preflop pot because you can expect to gain multiple bets when you hit a made hand, particularly on the turn where the bet size doubles.

Med suited connectors do well multi-way as you can expect to flop at least a draw (straight or flush)or better aprox 20% of the time. In this case you do not want to see a raise preflop as you are looking to flop a draw and want to be assured of drawing as cheaply as possible. In raised preflop pots, this is usually not the case. The idea here is to again win big pots when you have a gambling hand.

The reason you want to play these in later position is that you will then have enough info to determine how many players are in and whether or not the flop will be played aggressively. If the game is particularly loose-passive, then you can play these type of hands up front as well, for the reasons sited above.

There are some pretty good posts in the archives about this topic.

Hope this helps, and good luck.
-NY