I remember reading somewhere that standard UTG play at full ring NLHE is something along the lines of folding 22-66/77 and raising any larger pocket pairs than that.

This is something I cant get my head around.

When playing low and middle pocket pairs, we are essentially looking to hit a set, which to me, suggests that the majority of the time we are going to play 22 and 99 the same way. Folding to a 3bet PF unless we have implied set odds, and not continuing postflop unless we hit our set.

Why then is folding smaller pocket pairs UTG advocated when we are likely to follow a similar line with them as we are say 88, 99??

I'm sure there's more to this, any ideas guys?? Thanks.