In the last article, we talked about the various ways to play your small pocket pairs. They can be tough cards to play, and playing them incorrectly can cost you a lot of money you didn't need to lose. Too often, I have watched people call bets to the river with nothing more than a small pocket pair while looking at 5 overcards on the board. Calling instead of raising gives you no real opportunity to evaluate the strength of your opponents hand. With a small pocket pair, your best chance to win is to make a set on the flop. Although you will have 5 community cards to improve your hand, the strength of your hand will be determined after the first 3. If you are unable to make a set (3 of a kind) on the flop, you may be faced with a bet that could keep you from seeing the last 2 community cards. Let's say you are holding pocket 5s, the flop is A93, and someone bets in front of you. At this point, you really only have two options. If you think it is likely that your opponent is holding an ace, you should fold. If you think he may just be representing an ace, you can raise to find out more information. As previously mentioned, calling in this situation provides you with no further information about the strength of you opponents hand. If you just call, the turn card is a K, and he bets again, you are back in the same situation knowing no more information than you did after the flop and your opponent has seen an additional card that may have improved his hand.

So, what are the odds of flopping a set? The odds are approximately 1 out of 7. That means if you play pocket 2s seven times, you will likely only make a set 1 time after the flop. This leads into our 4TexasHoldem.com survey question that asked:

If you are sitting in the dealer position with pocket 3s and 6 players have limped in ahead of you, what would you do?

Now you know your hand is likely to improve on the flop only 1 out of 7 times. You also know that you hand will most likely need to improve if it is to hold up against a large number of players.

With pocket 3s, if you make a large raise to try and win the pot, you could be called by someone with a larger pocket pair making you a 4 to 1 underdog. Or, at best, you can assume you'll be called by at least one player with overcards like AJ putting you only slightly ahead in the hand. If you make a small raise, there is a good chance that all the players will stay in the hand based on the pot odds. For example, there are at least 8 players in the hand for the value of the big blind. If you make a bet of double the big blind, players would be getting about 16 to 1 on the new money they are putting in the pot and will most likely call (8 players x 2 minimum bets = 16 bets). Therefore, making this bet puts you no further ahead.

Some hands like AA that may not need to improve to win play better against fewer players, while other hands like a small pair that typically need to make a set play better against a larger number of players. In the situation where you have pocket 3s with 6 players limping in ahead of you, your best play would be to just limp in and try for the set. In our survey, the highest percentage of voters (44%) agreed that limping in was the best option. If you make your set on the flop, you have a great chance of winning much more than 7 to 1 on your money making it a very good investment of your chips.