The sight of a couple of small paired cards in their pocket has different effects on different categories of online poker players. Rookies might be tempted to believe it’s the poker gods’ gift for being such a nice guy, more advanced yet not exactly experienced players may come to loathe them. The truth is, small pocket pairs can indeed be a blessing under the right circumstances, and how much profit you’ll be able to reap off them depends solely on how you decide to play them.

Generally speaking, small pocket pairs carry great implied odds. This means that if you master the way to exploit these odds, you’ll make excellent profit on such poker hands.

The way to play such pocket pairs is to see as many flops on them as possible, in the hopes of hitting a set. From there on, your decision making process will be a simple one. If you do hit your set, you have to shove as much money into the pot as possible. If you miss it, you fold. Of course, most of the time, you will not catch your set on the flop and that will cost you money, so it may seem like you’re pushing a negative EV play here. The way the implied odds work however is that they give you a huge pot pretty much every time you do catch your set, winnings which will more than make up for the money you spend on seeing your flops.

In low limit online poker games, set mining is a great way to generate long-term revenue, and coupled with a rakeback deal it will give you excellent EV.

There are two variables you can tinker with in order to increase the productivity of your set mining. The first one is the money you spend on your flops, the second one is the amount of money you’re able to get into the pot when you get your set. The first one is aimed at reducing your losses (and as we all know money not lost is just as sweet as money won), the second one is aimed at maximizing your winnings.

At full 10-handed Texas Holdem tables (especially if it’s a FL micro stakes game) your set will lose some value. In short handed games it gains value. If you’re faced with passive opposition, aiming to spend as little on the flops you see makes perfect sense. The same approach doesn’t work however when you’re playing a bunch of aggressive maniacs. In such cases, you need to raise preflop on your small pocket pair, because limping will cost you a lot of money anyway, which you might as well use to pressure your opponents.