Losing money with small pairs?
 

Four-handed, on decent player and one too-loose in the blinds, an unknown on the button.

I open-raise 3 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] UTG, button folds and the blinds call.

Flop is 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Checked to me, I bet. Both call and I'm certain I don't have the best hand.

Turn and river get checked through.

Should I simply fold 33 here, as there's little chance of wining the blinds?

Re: Losing money with small pairs?
 

I don't steal with 22 and 33 anymore, I think they're significant losers. 4-handed you're essentially in the CO, I also think this is a loser. I'm not going to go through the equity calculation here, but even if they're on nothing but the OESD, they've almost certainly got two overcards as well and your equity isn't even 33% on the turn. Your action on any flop becomes so hard to judge because no action is great.

Re: Losing money with small pairs?
 

I don't raise with such 22-33 (maybe 44) in steal position, if I expect to get 2 callers. If I can get it hu - and my opponent is not very aggressive or tricky - then I think it's fine to raise/steal with those hands.

Re: Losing money with small pairs?
 

Your equity is actually slightly better than I thought if one of them is on the one-card OESD and one is on straight overcards. However, I think it's going to be a signifant minority where they both miss made hands and one picks up only his OESD draw.

Re: Losing money with small pairs?
 

This is dependant on how loose the blinds are preflop and postflop.