Facing a raise with small pairs and 25-30BB's

[fjuanl]

I don't have a HH so bear with me. I often find myself not sure what to do when I have 22-55 facing a late position raise when my stack is in the 30BB range. Against a late position opener you usually can't set mine and it seems a bit deep to be 3bet/calling. I normally have been folding in these spots even though I know someone is raising a wide range...and it feels wrong. Thoughts?

[MDHughes604]

It's definitely villain/scenario dependent, but if you ever watch very successful online mtt pros like djk123 or USCphildo, you will see them play a mad-aggressive style in the blinds facing LP raises. Majority of good players are extremely aggressive, and everyone knows LP raising ranges for most players is very wide. Best way to counter this is not by nitting it up, but rather being overly aggressive. Some will argue playing a 20-30bb stack can be awkward because you are committed if you 4bet but feel weak to fold (like you mentioned), so do what most pros do and just shove.

It's a solid play w small pairs in the blinds facing a button/co/hj raise since it is unexploitable and their calling range for a large portion (or majority) of their stacks is usually pretty narrow- again both things dependent on villain and your history with him.

[baudib]

See mcat's post on small pairs. He talks about restealing with 25BBs and 22...Since you have slightly more than that, you may not want to do that...I'd be very surprised if calling out of the blinds with small pairs vs. a button raiser is profitable for anyone.

Go-and-gos are OK, but I'd prefer something more playable postflop, like JTs.

[fjuanl]

from mcatdog:

Likewise, small pairs are great restealing hands. If I have 25 BB or less and an aggressive player raises in late position, I'm all-in with any pocket pair.

That sort of answers my question, but you still don't have set odds usually with 35 or even 40BB's if someone is raising a huge amount of air that won't pay you off when you hit a set

[drmcboy]

I'll usually fold if I can't shove and don't have any reads that make me think I'll be winning a lot of flops without sets.

[mcatdog]

Shove or fold, usually shove if the opener is at all aggressive.

[baudib]

from mcatdog:

Likewise, small pairs are great restealing hands. If I have 25 BB or less and an aggressive player raises in late position, I'm all-in with any pocket pair.

That sort of answers my question, but you still don't have set odds usually with 35 or even 40BB's if someone is raising a huge amount of air that won't pay you off when you hit a set

Unless I'm misunderstanding, I think you do....

If you have 40 BBs and are already in the BB for 1, if you face a 3xBB button raise from someone with 40 BBs or more, you're calling 2 more BBs to potentially win 40....

[drmcboy]

how often does BU have a hand he'll A) hit and then B) put 40BBs in with?

[baudib]

5% of the time?

[baudib]

Actually I went back and looked at the work mcatdog had done and he estimates that 8% of the time we hit a set and double up. I generally use the 5% of effective stacks in setmining. Is that not correct?