Riddle me this Batman...

[Student_Of_Games]

I'm pretty new to NL (I'm decent at Limit, but I've only recently started dabbling with NL) and there are some plays that I'm still REALLY unsure of... like how are you supposed to play small/medium pairs??? People keep telling me I'm playing them too passively but it's the one hand that I have the most trouble figuring out where I'm at with...

[gildwulf]

Limp in and call a small raise preflop...if you hit your set ram it, if you don't and you think you are beat...fold.

[ticks]

Whats the highest raise you are prepared to call?
I love a minraise, but anything higher than that makes me uneasy.
I usually fold anything higher than 3x.
Am I weak/tight?

[EchoOfThunder]

The rule I follow with preflop raises is... (hope everyone remembers logic class)

If my stack AND my opponent's stack are both 15x the preflop raise, call every time.

If my stack OR the opponent's stack is less than 10x the preflop raise then never call.

In between, use your judgment.


You are basically playing for set value, and if the raise is big, then he's more likely to have a high pair, which means youre more likely to get his stack if you hit a set. However, your probability of hitting a set is 1 in 8.5, so if you call raises in the less than 10x case, then you are giving yourself a -EV situation cause some of the time you wont get a stack.