Always raise pocket pairs?

[AZK]

Over the last few days I've been playing a lot of 5/10, a little 10/20 and watching a lot of higher stakes games. I've seemed to notice that a majority of players always (or at least when I see them hit) raise pocket pairs (normally when everyone at the table or players involved have 150BB+). A few give more consideration to position, but still actively do it. We are talking full ring here. Any reason not to? I used to throw it in here or there to improve shania, or if i had position etc etc...now I'm thinking about just doing it in general. The pots you create are huuuuge. Thoughts?

[Dr. Strangelove]

If the stacks are deep enough to call a reraise I like it.

[warlockjd]

If:

1. You're raising enough non-pair hands to fight opponents' hand reading.

2. The game is not so aggressive that you are reraised above your set flopping odds.

3. Your hand reading skills are very good.

[thabadguy]

I think a raise with any pp is good, no1 puts u on deuces and u get paid when u flop a set. It is only good with deep stack, if the other guy goes all in for a decent amount more than ur raise preflop, obvious muck.

[-Skeme-]

A friend of mine who plays higher limits on Stars raises almost all of the time with the PPs he plays. I think he just folds 22-66 in EP, though.

[Yeti]

At 6-Max I open with every PP.

[gomberg]

I raise most of the time, but for sure not every time... I like paying attention to position, who I may be isolating, what my current table image is, and of course stack size. I still limp em a decent amount. I'd say my low / med pocket pairs are raised about the same amount as medium suited connectors for me.

[Erdnase]

It depends. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I used to raise pretty much every pp, especially from position. Most flops were heads up.
1) you continue on the flop, a bet takes the pot.
2) you hit a set, win a small pot
3) you end up in a difficult situation after failed steal attempt on flop, e.g. 2nd pair, small overpair, ins. str. draw,...

3) will cost you money in the long run, I think.

The main value by far of pps is their set potential. Odds are 7,5:1 against, you wanna get at least that from your sets (on average). So for me, the idea is to get to the set as cheaply as possible. I dont raise many pps (lower than QQ) preflop anymore. I try to hit a set cheap and break someone.

I also think, if you raise, you will eliminate hands that might pay you off. Raises will generally be called by somewhat stronger hands, which also dont hit that often or are naturally afraid of monsters. Example might be AQ, A high flop, AQ might play very cautiously fearing AK. In an unraised pot, AQ will be all over the place.

Sorry for the rambling, I find it hard to organize my thoughts today....
[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Greets, Erd.

[Loci]

Players won't risk as much post flop against your trips in this game if there isn't already a pot. Raising preflop makes post flop bets look like steals when 2/4/7 rainbow hits and you're on a set. With these deeper stacks(~150bb)you can dick around and lose a little more to win a lot more.

[Erdnase]

Good point, haven't thought about it that way. But sounds like this applies to higher limits only. I currently play 3-6 or 5-10 NL...doing ok with not raising pps very often...

Erd.