too loose of a call?

[Arin H 0]

I was playing a 5 handed NLHE cash game with blinds at .25 and .50 with a super aggressive/loose/ horrible player. Just to show how loose and horrible this player was, on a flop of K 4 6 i went all in and he called with A 7 only to double me up. A few hands later the following hand came up. The super aggressive player who had been raising $5 before every flop, raised $5 in first position and it was folded to me in the small blind. I called his raise with pocket 3s knowing that if i hit a third 3 i would win a very big pot. The big blind folded and the flop came 5 5 3 and i bet out 10 knowing he would raise and fortunately for me he went all in with pocket 4s and gave me a lot of chips. Now i don't really have a lot of cash game experience but after the hand i felt my call was a little loose and i was kind of hoping just to "get lucky." Now do you guys think that this was a loose call or a pretty standard call knowing that the implied odds compensate a little for the weakness of pocket 3s ?

[Ninjaballz 0]

How big was his stack?

[Arin H 0]

i had about $24 and he had about $20 and change.

[troyomac 0]

i had about $24 and he had about $20 and change.

that is a loose call...you should either fold or reraise him all in. i'm not sure if this is right, but i've read that calling with a pocket pair is only smart if it costs you less than 1/8th of your stack, and you have an opportunity to double up

[sloshr 0]

In that case it was a loose call. You were not getting the implied odds to hit your set. A good rule of thumb is to call up to 1/7 of what you can win preflop with a small pair. Otherwise you can just move in before the flop, but you know he will call with anything and you will be in a coinflip with a fish. I prefer to look for better spots, and I would probably fold this if I had nothing invested.