Playing middle pairs

[Watertight]

was just wondering how you guys would play ,5's 6's 7's 8's 9's pre flop ?
been getting into alot of trouble with them lately.
Should i play it hard pre flop and get no callers, or do i just flat call . I'm sure position is a major factor but i have found that even raising in a late position leads to trouble. Any advice would be welcomed.

Cheers

[Bongo]

Cash/MTT/STT?

[OffTheRadar]

Not entirely sure about cash games as I hardly play them and when I do I tend to do my money in, but a lot of advice I've seen is to get in cheap and play them for set value (this includes 10's and even J's).

In the early stages of a MTT/STT I'd be wanting to see a cheap flop with these hands from any position and try and cash in big time if I hit a set, if not I'll lay them down pretty easily. As the blinds increase I'll play them more aggressively especially if I have position and if I'm short-stacked or up against a short-stack these are good hands to push all-in with.

[lazaroonie]

i think to be fair its a mistake to group all these hand together - for example a pair of 5's has far less strength than a pair of nines.

Nines (and sometimes eights), I will raise preflop depending on position and previous action in the hand, and then be looking to make a move with them depending on position and what the flop brings (a scary flop for you is a scary flop for the other players too).

Lower than that, then yeah, limp time, and hope to catch a set. Sevens seem to be unnaturally lucky for some reason

[NoflopsHomer]

In first levels of a tournament I'd pretty much limp with any of them up to nines, the blinds aren't worth stealing and the implied odds when hitting a set in a unraised pot vs multiple opponents or versus a raiser are much greater. In the same way, I'm quite happy to limp with hands like AQ during the first level.