Set Mining

If you’re at a really loose passive table where everybody just limps in pre-flop is it profitable to set mine any small pocket pair (deuces, threes, ect.)?

Absolutely. If nobody raises then you are getting an amazing price to set mine. Sure, sometimes somebody else can flop a straight or flush over your set, but most of the time you will win a big pot.

Honestly, with the way cash games on Replay are often loose-passive and 200 bbs deep, it is almost always worth seeing a flop with a pocket pair. Most players are so passive that you will almost never get re-raised, and players who do raise/re-raise often only do it with hands like AA/KK, which will pay you off massively when you do hit your set.

There are certainly situations in poker where it is not worthwhile to call a big raise with a pocket pair because stacks are too shallow or you won’t win much when you hit, but on Replay sets are about the easiest way to win a full buy-in.

The other caveat to it is: DO NOT play pocket pairs passively like everyone else and just limp. Depending on game dynamics/position/stack depth, it can be worthwhile to raise any pocket pair over any number of limpers from any position in most games. Think about it, you won’t get everyone to fold preflop every time, but you will sometimes. You won’t hit a set every time, but when you do the pot will start off 4+x bigger than if you had just limped, so it’s easier to get stacks in the middle. When you miss, you have showdown value, so you don’t have to fold every time.

For absolute beginners, you probably should raise every time with QQ+ or TT+, for players who are uncomfortable raising and playing postflop, you can raise 88+, and for better players you can raise 22+ sometimes and limp behind/call other times. Open limping (being the first limper) is NEVER a good idea, no matter your hand (unless you are open limping AA because you expect someone to raise, so you that you can raise again).

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