Small pairs are another type of tricky hand to play in tournaments. Players commonly make mistakes with these hands that deter from their value. When played optimally, small pairs can be great hands to be dealt in tournaments. For the purposes of this article, we’ll say a “small pair” is anything 22-66.
40+ Big Blinds
When the stacks are this deep, look to see the flop for about 3 big blinds preflop. This means if no one has raised, you should raise. If someone has already raised, just call, don’t re-raise. The idea is to see a flop cheaply and try to set. When playing these hands solely for their set-flopping value, you really shouldn’t call a preflop raise for more than 10% of your stack. You’ll flop a set about 1/7 times, so you want to be calling off much less than 1/7th of your stack in hopes of flopping a set.
However, don’t be afraid to expand the value of these hands by stabbing at the pot in the right situations even if you fail to flop a set. It’s important to recoup some of the value you’re giving up from failing to flop a set 6 out of 7 times.
20-40 Big Blinds
This is where small pairs become tricky to play. You can raise preflop in most instances, but if you are at a table where a lot of re-raising takes place, you can consider just folding these hands preflop, especially if you are in early position. Small pairs can become expensive if you raise preflop, miss the flop, continuation bet anyway, and get raised by an opponent. Be careful in these instances. Small pairs are a good hand to not continuation bet with on occasion. You already have a pair meaning your hand has some showdown value. By always continuation betting with these hands, you’re effectively turning them into a bluff.
10-20 Big Blinds
Players make a lot of mistakes with small pairs with this stack size. In early position, it is advisable to just open-fold small pairs. That’s a play many are unable to make and it costs them a lot in the long run. In late position, you should raise. With 20 big blinds, it could be okay to raise and fold to a re-raise. However, with 10, you should be raising all-in. How you play small pairs with this stack size depends a lot on the other players at your table. If there are players being very aggressive and raising a lot of pots, you can consider re-raising all-in with a small pair against them. If the table is really tight, be careful and don’t overvalue these hands too much. To reiterate, folding preflop, especially in early position, is usually okay.
Less than 10 Big Blinds
Shove preflop. Easy peasy.