As I mentioned, when facing aggression with a set, I think you should try and get the money in pretty much every time. When facing aggression with an overpair it is not so simple. Sometimes you are going to need to get away. But not that often.
This is a difficult spot for many players, especially with the big pairs, which is why set mining is so profitable. It is hard to provide very many hard and fast rules for this though as it depends on a number of different factors.
However, against nits and even most TAGs you can make the easiest laydowns in spots like these. With nits especially we know that they are on a very tight range and aren’t overly aggressive. They are basically sitting around waiting for nut hands. When they wake up (fight back against your bet, bet, shove) they will have it the overwhelming majority of the time. You can safely fold against them.
With SLPs and fish things are a bit different. They are passive as well but they also have a really wide range, will overvalue plenty of hands that they shouldn’t, and are much more prone to just flip out for no apparent reason. I get away versus them sometimes but not nearly as often as against regs. And often their raise or donk bets will be so small that you can just call down relatively cheaply anyways.
As I talked about before, it is important to remember that there is a big difference between a flop raise and a turn raise though. When you get raised on the flop, plenty of players at the micros can do this from time to time with a range that includes draws and other stuff that you beat.
When they raise you on the turn however, it is a much stronger play. Due to the increased size of the pot a raise often requires that they put in a considerable portion of their stack. This is a lot scarier and so most players will just call instead.
Furthermore, you always have to put yourself in your opponent’s shoes. Ask yourself, would they really turn a mediocre hand into a big bluff here? The answer is going to be no the large majority of the time at the micros. Micro players call down with mediocre hands, they don’t raise with them.
These spots are difficult for many people though and for good reason. They are close. And as we know when a situation is close, it isn’t going to make that much of a difference to your long term winrate whichever way you decide. Also, at some future point in time, your opponents are going to be put in these same spots and have just as difficult a time folding versus you. So don’t worry about them too much. Just make sure you are making the obvious folds against the regs.
Example:
In EP you have,
You raise and get called by a fish in the BB.
The flop comes,
You cbet and he check/raises.
You should re-raise and get it in or call and get it in on most turns.
Example:
In MP you have,
You raise and get called by a nit in the SB. The flop comes,
You cbet and he check/raises.
You should call.
If he leads for a decent sized bet on a non-ace turn, you should fold.
