(1) Because it is stated in the SHC. There are no more questions that need to be asked.

(2) Because you will be paid off very well if both you and your
opponent hit the flop. They won't be able to put you on such a strong
hand most of the time since it is disguised pretty well. Furthermore,
players on the low buy-ins make strange plays with bad hands quite
frequently. Our opponent will be thinking that we are one of those
players.

We would be going broke with TPTK as well because we know that our
opponent might be holding a set but he could go broke with TP without a kicker
as well. We are ahead against the all-in range of an average player
with TPTK.

Another advantage of set mining is that you can easily get away
from the hand if you don't hit your set because you haven't invested a
lot of money. The Risk/Reward ratio is excellent.

(3) I limp every hand for deception anyway. I therefore do it with pocket pairs as well.

Question 2: What ratio between the amount you have to call and your stack justifies calling?

(1) This has nothing to do with the ratio. You can always limp in the early stages. After the early stage, you don't limp any more.

(2) The ratio should be around 1:16 in order to call profitably.

(3) You can play profitably from 1:10 onwards.

HANDS

Question 3. Something simple to start with:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t60 (9 handed)

UTG (t2510)
UTG+1 (t1490)
MP1 (t1220)
MP2 (t4540)
MP3 (t1870)
Hero (t1740) 7, 7
Button (t2380)
SB (t2330)
BB (t1920)

2 folds, MP1 calls, 1 fold, MP3 calls, Hero ???

(1) we can limp for set value here.

(2) we should fold.

(3) we should raise.

Question 4: Lets look at an example with some action in front of us

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t60 (9 handed)

UTG (t2210)
UTG+1 (t1090)
MP1 (t1220)
MP2 (t4540)
MP3 (t1870)
Hero (t2440) 7, 7
Button (t2380)
SB (t2330)
BB (t1920)

2 folds, MP1 raises to t125, MP2 calls, 1 fold, Hero ???

(1) we can call the raise in order to play for set value

(2) uh someone raised, I better fold...

(3) hmm… isn't there a move called squeeze play or something? I think I'll do that one.

Question 5: A whole lot of action now.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t40 (8 handed)

UTG+1 (t2210)
MP1 (t1090)
MP2 (t1220)
MP3 (t4540)
CO (t1870)
Hero is Button (t4820) 2, 2
SB (t2330)
BB (t1920)

1 fold, MP1 raises to t100, MP2 calls, MP3 raises to t250, CO calls, Hero ???

(1) A lot of action = big pot = I wanna join this one, I call...

(2) I love the low buy-ins, I'll fold and watch everyone else get eliminated.

Question 6: Blinds increase, while skill decreases

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (8 handed)

UTG+1 (t2210)
MP1 (t1090)
MP2 (t1220)
MP3 (t4540)
CO (t1870)
Hero is Button (t4820) 3, 3
SB (t2330)
BB (t1920)

2 folds, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO calls, Hero ???

(1) I am deep enough with 24 BB to limp as well.

(2) I think its better to fold.

Question 7: Blinds increase, while skill decreases II

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (8 handed)

UTG+1 (t2210)
MP1 (t1090)
MP2 (t1220)
MP3 (t4540)
CO (t1870)
Hero is Button (t4820) 3, 3
SB (t2330)
BB (t1920)

2 folds, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, 1 fold, Hero ???

(1) It's the same situation as in question 4. I fold.

(2) I can definitely call for set value here.

Question 8: Referring to a question that pops up quite often

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (8 handed)

Hero (t2410) T, T
MP1 (t1090)
MP2 (t1220)
MP3 (t4340)
CO (t1870)
Bu (t4820)
SB (t2330)
BB (t1920)

Hero ???

(1) Pocket tens are nearly too good to fold here. However, only
better hands will call me if I push. I don't want to raise in this
phase because I would have to call a push. The only thing left would be
limping.

(2) I am going to war with this hand.

Anyone who chose anything except the long winding answer is wrong.

Remarks to answer (1): In general it is correct to
follow the SHC in the beginning, but without questioning it,
or respectively without understanding it, you will struggle reaching the higher limits.

Question 2:

Answer (2) is closest to being correct. We will
hit our set little more than one in 17 times, but this one time you win the
hand and double up has to compensate for every occasion where you limped and
folded to a raise, but you didn't get paid off well because your opponent
didn't hit or the times where you lost even though you had a monster.

You'll often see ratios of 1:14 mentioned in cash game forums. I
think that you have to use a ratio that is a little higher in SNGs
because you can't rebuy any chips and you'll have some leaks in your
game as a beginner, which you have to compensate for as well.

This is a prime example of a hand where you can
limp for set value very well. All playerss, including ourselves, have a
stack that is large enough to be paid off well enough if we hit. We
limp!

Raising with 77 doesn't make sense because we are up against two opponents and often have to play on a flop with overcards.

Folding is too weak because you'll often be paid off well if you hit your set.

We can call for set value in this situation even though someone who
doesn't have enough chips raised because the one who called the raise
has enough chips. The relationship between the stack size and the raise
should always be at least 16:1 because even though we do hit our set
occasionally, we also have to fold to a preflop raise once in a while
or we won't get paid off to the maximum. This has to be compensated for by the
perfect pay off.

The
squeeze play that I mentioned shouldn't be used by beginners on the low
buy-ins because it'll be unsuccessful quite often due to your opponents
and beginners will find it hard to choose the right spots for this move.

Considering the stack sizes (see answer to
question 2) we could call profitably for set value, however there was
too much action in front of us. There was a raise, a cold call, a
reraise and another cold call. There will be two
other players behind us, if we decide to call, who have already shown that they have a good
hand. We probably won't be able to see the flop cheaply as someone
could reraise again. Furthermore we are holding 22 so we could only hit
bottom set. We should fold preflop due to all these facts.

Question 6:

Our stack is large enough to justify calling,
however both opponents in the hand have small stacks (6BB and 9BB). They won't be able to pay us off profitably in the long run. The only
thing left to do here is to fold.

Question 7:

Basically this is the same situation as in
question 4, however there is one opponent who would be able to pay us
off (over 20 BB). Therefore, it would be possible to call for set value
in this situation. The hand range which the big stack and the short stack
limp with at these blinds is very hard to determine due to the opaqueness of
these bad opponents. However, I would put both opponents on small pocket
pairs, small aces or optically attractive hands such as QJ etc.
Opponents who hit the flop are mostly willing to give us a lot of chip
if we hit our set.

Question 8:

You can often read players saying that they would
limp in this situation because they are scared of pushing as they think
they will only be called by better hands.

The magic word here is
fold equity!!! You will, of course, be called by players who hold very good hands when you push from UTG with 12BB, however,
when you assign them a range of 99+, AKo, AQs+
you'll notice that they'll only be holding one of these hands with a
probability of 4.5%.

This implies that everyone folds 73% of the time. This fact, in
combination with the fact that we would win 40% of the time if we do
get called, makes this push very profitable.

Calling is not profitable. It is actually very negative because I
can't think of a way to continue playing the hand. Calling for set
value means that you would fold to a bet if you didn't hit your set. You'll get more players in the hand by limping who might be holding
hands that you can actually beat. You would be folding the best hand.

I
would clearly recommend pushing in this situation rather than limping. You
could raise as well, but as a beginner you should try to avoid difficult
postflop situations because they cause you to make mistakes. Pushing
should be your first choice, raising your second and everything else
should be ignored.