[Dov]

You need more people in the pot to make this call profitable.

Here's why.

You will flop a set to pocket pair about 1 in 8 times. This means that you will fold the flop about 7 of 8 times when you call and miss your set. This means that you will lose 1 small bet 7 of 8 times when you try to catch your set. You need to make up for this loss.

Since you will only flop a set 1 in 8 times, the pot needs to be offering you odds of 7-1 to call profitably. However, the betting will not end on the flop. Therefore, anytime you get approximately 5-1 from the pot preflop, you can call profitably.

This is because you are expecting to make up the difference later in the hand. This is called implied odds.

If you routinely play the small pairs without implied odds, you will lose more than you make when you finally do flop a set. That's why you need 4 callers or more in a raised pot.

Hope this helped.

Dov