darbday;216795 wrotei will win many tourneys without ever going over an m of thirty, and i seriously can't believe that you should never play pocket pairs to set mine without that high of a chip count, ive been doing it every chance i get with over 10 bbs
I think he was being sarcastic. I was talking about cash games there, and even in cash games its profitable with effective stacks from 40xBB and above. I just find set mining
most profitable when deeper.
As for MTTs, 10xBB is really pushing it. That means you have to get an opponents entire stack (assuming they have you covered) > 85% of the times you flop a set - and that's also assuming the pot never gets raised behind you. And it's mathematically incorrect if your opponent in the hand has < 8.5xBB, unless you're in position and can bluff him off the pot often enough to make it profitable. You (and your opponent) should really have > 20xBB to make it profitable to set mine, based on getting his stack ~ 50% of the time (or winning half his stack, on average). If you're shorter stacked than that, treat small pairs as hands you can semi-bluff with occasionally (especially in position), throw them away when OOP, and emphasize playing hands with some showdown value.