i'll call most raises with low pocket pairs, as long as the stacks are deep. sets have been by far my best moneymaker at the games i play. i'm pretty willing to play a set for my whole stack in a raised pot. my question is what to do with low pocket pairs in an unraised pot, when i'm in LP. with a few limpers....should i raise it up? or limp along? i can see the merits to either play...but i'm not sure which is +EV. when i limp along and give the blinds a free play and i hit my set of 4's on a 3-4-7 flop, im always a little worried that someone stuck around with 5-6.

so....in LP with small pairs and a couple limpers to you....do you raise it up? or limp along? thanks,

edit: on further reflection.....im not terribly worried on the flop. but frequently the turn or river card has a large potential to screw my set.

jon

Limping is the way to go. Think about all the times you raise AK, bet the flop with nothing and then have to fold. When you raise 44, the same thing is going to happen.

The 1 in 8.5 times you actually hit a set could easily be the time that someone else called with 77 and missed theirs so all your getting is the flop money.

Dont do what every moron does which is make a minimum raise preflop. Its so blatantly obvious that I reraise them with junk all the time.

thanks for the reply. what you're saying makes a lot of sense. one thing i want to clarify though....i almost never min-raise under any circumstances, and never with a small pair in LP. when i do raise it up i make my standard 4xBB raise.

in general...in an unraised pot, then, are you saying it's often preferable to keep the pot size smaller throughout the hand, because of the uncertainty factor? thanks,

jon

Sets make the most money in 2 spots.

1) You flop a set in a raised pot (you werent the raiser) and a guy cant fold his overpair

2) You flop a set in an unraised pot and someone else flops top pair or 2 pair and wont let go of it.

When you raise yourself and flop a set, you usually dont get much action. if you raise with JJ and the flop is QJ5. Youre probably not going to win a big pot unless the other guy has 55 (or maybe AQ)

if you raise with 55 and the flop is K53, what could the caller have thats going to win you a huge pot? You folded off KT, KJ and probably KQ already with your raise.