| Re: How do you play small pocket pairs???
I raise small PP very rarely. Pretty much only in a tourney, according to very specific stacks.
Cash games, and early in MTT and STT are the same. PP are for set value - getting value from hands like AK, AQ, and higher pairs. This means get in cheap, and get out when you missed. At aggressive tables (lots of raises pf) I fold small pp pre-flop. Against more passive tables I will limp even in early position. I will call raises with small pp if we are deep stacked, and I am in lp or closing the action. If folded to me in the CO or on the button, I will often put in a steal/value raise against the remaining players, but I have to be confident in my ability to either get heads up and/or out play the remaining players. A lot of people will min-raise small pp with very deep stacks in an effort to build pots when you do hit a set. I'm not sure I have played in many situations where I feel this is necessary. An exception is 6-max limit cash games where I will play small pp very aggressively pf--but willing to let go postflop if it is clear I am beat.
Small (and even middle) pp I will fold in tournies in early and mid position when my stack in in the crappy 12-17x bb mode (not quite pushing mode, but at a point where you can easily get pot committed, and the chips lost in limping end up costing you when you need them to double when you do hit). For the same reason, I will even often fold them in LP, unless there is some ridiculous reason (5 limpers or something) to try and call. I used to get sucked along with these sometimes, and waste money. Get rid of 'em.
If I am in push/fold mode in a tourney, I will often (although not always) open push small pp in mid to late position. I have to be on the desperate end of the push/fold mode to push them in early position. The other times I will raise a pp in a tourney is if I have a ton of chips and it is folded to me in lp. If the blinds have stack sizes where I am willing to flip with them, then I will raise all-in such that they have to decide whether to call or not.
I think this is pretty similar to what was already said above, just adding to the consensus, I guess.
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