When you look at how a certain type of poker player treats their pocket pairs in full-ring poker games then this is a very good indication of their mindset and overall attitude to risk. This can be especially the case in full-ring games. If you see a player win a pot with a set in ten handed full-ring no-limit play and you trace the action back and they open limped with a small pocket pair then this is indicative of something. You usually see low variance mentality with these types of strategies with players looking to flop sets on the cheap and then stack other players.
A follow on to this strategy is if players call raises with pocket pairs. Once again these players are attempting to win a big pot on the cheap. There is nothing essentially wrong with this however it does have several problems attached to it. Firstly if this is the only way that you can play pocket pairs then you are going to have something of a problem when you come up against better players. With tiny pocket pairs then you are simply not going to flop a set often enough and your pairs will play badly post flop and you will find that you are going to have an awful lot of pots taken away from you.
In full ring games then there is absolutely nothing wrong with folding small pocket pairs in early position. We will see why right here but let us first imagine that you open raise with such hands. Your position is terrible and so many players can call or even three bet you and all of which places you into a bad situation. If you limp then in tight and more aggressive games then you are going to find that your limps are being attacked far more which is going to present you with another problem. If you fold then you have wasted money for nothing and if you call then we are back to the same problem where your opponent has position and you are being forced to basically hit the flop.
So this is where you need to have a Plan B when you play these types of hands. If you are playing six max games then why not raise with them? At least here then you can represent hands post flop when you miss the flop. Raising gives you the initiative and not your opponent. So unless I know that I am playing in very passive games with very bad players then I will tend to have a raise or fold strategy with pocket pairs and especially small pocket pairs.
In full ring games then I will also look to slip into my six max mode and I will fold the small pocket pairs during the early positions and open raise if I am in later position. Remember that when the first four players have folded in full-ring then you are essentially playing six max.
