How to Play Pocket Pairs

This article looks at each category of pocket pairs, and will tell you how to play each category.

High Pocket Pairs

When you are fortunate enough to be dealt pocket aces or kings it is best to know how to stay out of those situations that will get them busted.  The are a couple basic rules that you should try to follow preflop.  The first one is to keep the people going into the flop a minimum, no more than three.  By doing this you will have much better odds of winning the pot.  In order to avoid too many players going into the flop, you want to make a preflop raise.  Usually no less than 4x the big blind. 

The other rule is to analyze your opponents. If you have noticed a wild player, then this works best.  Usually that player will bet on the flop regardless of their hand strength.  Try to let them bet into you and then re-raise them.  You can either re-raise a lot to try to knock him out or an amount to keep them in.  You would only want to keep them in if the flop doesn't show much trouble to your high pockets (ex - flush draws, straight draws).

Middle Pocket Pairs

When you are dealt a middle sized pocket pair, then you either want to play them very aggressively or very weak preflop.  If you are in the early stages (early to act), then you should make maybe a small raise (2-4x the big blind) the help eliminate some of the post flop opponents.  If you are later to act and there are several smooth callers, then you should throw out a big bet, in the 6-8x the big blind range.  Many times this will cause the rest of the table to fold.  At most you want to have 1-2 opponents when going into the flop.

Low Pocket Pairs

When you are dealt low pockets, you should try to smooth call in most cases unless you fell that you can raise and go heads up to the flop.  If you are later to act and someone raises, you should call if there are several people in the hand.  The chances of you winning the hand aren't very good, but if you happen to hit trips on the flop, your payout has huge potential, as you may get bet into due to a high change of an opponent also hitting.