small suited cards
 

lately ive been playig a lot of 3/6 NL. and ive been having luck with small suited cards such as 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]5 or 4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and so on. are these cards effective to take down big pots and good enough to call a small raise with?? i know many ppl believe it is effective with suited connectors, but what about these kinds of cards? just looking for some different thoughts

Re: small suited cards
 

I prefer to mess around with these hands during deep stacked games. (200+ bb average or so.) If you flop a made hand with them no one will see it coming and you can break an overly aggressive opponent. In smaller games, you will end up whittling away too much money doing this. Play them from late position in loose preflop games, anywhere in tight preflop games, and you will eventually hit. Another nice aspect of this is when you actually have a starting hand you get a lot of action. Still, I don't bother to do this unless I know that I can make a sizable income off it.
Ez

Re: small suited cards
 

In LP with deep stacks I will play these. In general I follow the rule of 5-10. I think it would be incorrect to limp with these early though or call a raise out of the blinds.

Re: small suited cards
 

I'm agreeing with Loci here. Hands like these are awesome in deep stacked games where players take aggressive stabs at raised pots when rags flop. As the stacks get shorter, just like any speculative hands, these lose value. And like all hands, having position certainly helps. In short-handed games raising (or re-raising; very player dependent) these hands can be very effective for deception value. Of course, if your opponents aren't perceptive, playing for deception value is worthless... like making funny faces at a blind guy... you just look like an a-hole.

Re: small suited cards
 

initial thoughts are -

When deep stacked:

I often call big-pair type pf raises with them, esp with position and the raiser can't lay big pairs down.
I open raise them from any position on a tight-pf table, if the conditions are right.
I never limp with them.

When average stack:

I sometimes call big-pair type pf raises but only with position and if the raiser is capable of laying the big pair down.
I often limp in LP with a few limpers ahead of me.
I tend not to open raise with them, unless I'm not getting any action on my other (bigger!) hands.

When short stacked:

muck
muck
muck