Thanks. It seems like very often I end up at tables where the betting is highly predictable (even though it's a NL or PL table). If the flop is rainbow and no real high cards, someone bets .50 and everyone calls; same person bets $1 and everyone calls; same person bets $3 or $4 and everyone folds. This pattern is reliable enough that I feel pretty confident calculating my odds from the flop through the river, if I want to see both cards. The only question is if I can extract any money on the river - usually the person initiating the betting all along will put down a few dollars, which alone is almost enough implied value for hitting the set. Then if I raise him and get called, even better.

It seems if I think it through this way that calling small bets into a large field of callers is a good idea with a low pair, provided the board isn't scary at all. However I tend to believe that because this only comes into play at tight/passive tables, and because the payoff only lands 1 time out of 12, that maybe this isn't that profitable of a play. Net expectation is probably barely above even, or maybe right at even.