Pocket Pairs
Pocket pairs in Texas Hold'em rank amongst the most valuable starting hands. You instantly have a made hand and could well go on to win the pot without needing to improve. Alas, knowing what to do with pocket pairs proves to be the downfall of many inexperienced players. No other hands are misplayed as badly, and as often, as pocket pairs.

They may both be pocket pairs but there is a world of difference between 2-2 and A-A. Knowing how to get the most out of both of these pairs, and all those pairs in between, is crucial if you are to be a winning poker player.

Pocket pairs are commonly defined into four categories; small pairs, middles pairs, danger pairs and high pairs. Small pairs are those from 2-2 through to 5-5, middle pairs cover the range of 6-6 through to 8-8, danger pairs are your 9-9 and 10-10 hands and your high pairs are the powerful J-J through to most prized starting hand in Hold’em, A-A.

It is best to start with what many consider to be the worst play in Texas Hold’em; calling an all-in with a small or middle pocket pair. The fact that you have a made hand in front of you is not excuse for making a basic error like this. If someone has already gone all-in and you call with a low pocket pair then you have placed yourself in great mortal danger. If your opponent holds a higher pair then you have no better than a 20% chance of winning and that’s a very bad position to be in. If your opponent holds two over cards then, at best, you are nothing more than a very marginal favourite and you have to ask yourself why you would willingly put yourself into such a dangerous situation?

There are times in tournament play when calling an all-in play with a small to middle pocket pair is absolutely the right play but, for the most part it is a bad mistake to make. Always try to remember that when you call an all-in you have only one way to win – by having the best hand. When you are the one who raises or goes all-in you have TWO chances – your opponents may fold or you can make the best hand.
In normal circumstances the best way to play a small pair is to try to see the flop cheaply and then hope to make your three of a kind straight away. That usually entails limping-in to the pot, though if you're in late position you might try your standard raise to try and take the pot there and then. The real trick is to try and get into the action for as small a price as possible and then hope to make your set.

A very worthwhile statistic to remember with pocket pairs is that they only flop 'three of a kind' around 12% of the time. That's one time in eight. The chances of 3-3 remaining the best hand if there are at least two other players at the table are very slim indeed.One very real danger with small pocket pairs is that they are easily counterfeited, leading to one of the unluckiest kinds of beats in poker. If you are holding, for example, 4-4 and your opponent holds A-2 then a board of 5-5-7-7-10 means you lose the hand. Your may have started with a pair of 4s and your opponent did nothing to improve their hand but using the best five cards each, you have a pair of 5's, a pair of 7's and a 4 kicker, while your opponent has a pair of 5's, a pair of 7's and an Ace kicker!

You'll get your occasional big wins if you always play your pocket pairs but constantly calling big bets with small pairs will end up costing you chips in the long run. Therefore, never be afraid to let go of a small pocket pair when the betting gets too heavy and the raises and re-raises are flying about.
A lot of what has already been said about small pairs also holds true for your middle pairs. On the plus side though, they do stand a better chance of being the higher pair in a showdown and they are also less likely to be counterfeited.

They are however very susceptible to over cards, especially if more than one opponent remains in the pot and it is usually the case that they will need to improve if they are going to be the highest hand at the showdown. With two other players remaining in the pot and four possible over cards being in play a middle-sized pocket pair will typically well under 40% to be the strongest hand after the flop.

Another key danger with middle pocket pairs is that some flops can appear to be okay and lead players into taking unnecessary risks. For example, if you hold 8-8 and the flop is J-5-2 it is tempting to believe that you're probably winning, as there's only one over card to worry about. However, time and again your opponent will have that over card and even if they don't you still have to worry about hands like 9-9 and 10-10 which will also carry on betting, in the belief that they are most likely still ahead.

In most circumstances it is wise to treat middle pairs as cautiously as small pairs. Either do your best to get into the action cheaply or try to take the pot down straight away with a raise. If you do get callers then it is wise to remember the words of a top player who, in these circumstances, operates on the maxim of "no set, no bet" with his small to medium pairs.
These hands get their names because inexperienced players often push too hard with them and assign them far greater strength than they actually have. They do stand a much better chance of holding up in two-player showdowns and are rarely counterfeited but they are always in danger against players who will always play an Ace and a picture card. 9-9 against A-K will only be a 55%-45% favourite, while that gap narrows down to 53%-47% if the two over cards are suited.

You should play these danger pocket pairs more aggressively but if you still have opponents up against you after a flop has come down and there are over cards on the board then never be afraid to face up to reality and fold.
When players look down at the two hold cards they've been dealt they do so in the hope of seeing one of these high pocket pairs. It's a great feeling to look down and see these powerful hands staring back at you. Knowing what to do with each of them though is crucial and they therefore need to be looked at individually.

Without doubt, this has to be the trickiest hand in all of poker. It is a powerful starting hand yet most players will have their tales of woe about the chips they've lost with it. Like all high pairs, J-J plays best against a narrow field, preferably just one opponent. That doesn't mean you go charging all-in with it every time, but you do need to make a raise.

If you find yourself up against two other players and they possess, between them, all three over cards of Ace, King and Queen, then you're in mortal danger and will go into the flop with a much less than 50-50 chance of still being ahead after the first here community cards have been dealt.

In tournament play, when the pressure is on to make a move, J-J is an extremely powerful hand with which to push in your chips. At all other times though it has to be treated with some degree of caution and one excellent piece of advice is to try and think of your J-J as being nothing more than 8-8 if the flop comes down with one or two over cards. You'd almost certainly fold your pair of 8's if the flop contained an Ace and a King, and so you should do the same with your J-J in similar circumstances.

Far too many players lose their chips stubbornly playing on with J-J and that could be avoided if only they would remember that it is not always the world-beater it first appears to be and adjusted their tactics accordingly.
The trick with a great starting hand like Q-Q is to either raise yourself or, if the opportunity presents itself, get into the action off the back of somebody else's raise. However you achieve it though you need to narrow the field down as best you can, because if you don't and you fail to make a set on the flop then you're in real danger of losing to all kinds of other hands. You can't afford to let your opponents see a flop cheaply when you're holding Q-Q.

If you raise and get a caller, or several callers, then you can be pretty sure that the appearance of an Ace or a King will mean that you're behind. When this happens, unless you've got a very real read on your opponents then don't make the cardinal mistake of pushing all-in to try and win the pot there and then. So many players do just that as they can't bring themselves to let go of a hand they know to be the third best starting hand in Texas Hold'em.

If the flop comes down with three under cards to your Q-Q then you HAVE to raise and find out where you are. Don't even think of slow-playing unless you hit your three of a kind, or the board is offering no flush or straight possibilities. If you get re-raised then you'll have to decide what you think your opponents might be holding and act accordingly. If you raised pre-flop though the odds are that you will still be ahead and all you have to determine is whether you're now up against three of a kind, somebody who has made top pair on the board with an Ace kicker or is chasing a straight or flush.
The Cowboys are the second strongest starting hand in poker and should be played as such at all times. At a 10-player table there will be a statistical chance of one time in twenty five when an opposing player will be holding A-A. You shouldn't really be too worried about that possibility though and should be very aggressive in the way you play your K-K.

If you've played the hand aggressively and narrowed the field down then most of the times you will only need to worry about seeing an Ace on the flop. Bear in mind though that, on average, an Ace will flop about a quarter of the time in Texas Hold'em. It is a fact of life in low-stakes games that many players will stubbornly hold onto any Ace and you should always bear that in mind.

If an Ace does happen to come down on the flop and your opponents shows every sign of holding an Ace themselves then don't allow pride, a denial of reality or anger to get the better of you. Throw your K-K away.

Pocket Kings though are an extremely powerful hand and if played aggressively and sensibly should be a huge money-maker for any decent poker player.
There are few better sights in Texas Hold'em than looking down and seeing that you've been dealt A-A, those wonderful Pocket Rockets. You can be secure in the knowledge that nobody else at the table has a better starting hand than you and that you'll have no over cards to worry about.

At this point two thoughts should be foremost in your thoughts. How do you best maximise your chances of getting paid off with your monster starting hand, and what should you do if you get action and the flop is not what you were hoping for.

Unless you're heads-up against just one opponent then slow-playing a starting hand of A-A is one of the riskiest moves in poker. The more players there are in a hand the less chance Pocket Aces have of winning.

If you just know that another player is going to raise then you can come flying over the top with a re-raise of your own. However, if you don't raise and several players enter the pot then you have a lot to be worried about and you've lost a huge advantage.

Never ever get stubborn with Pocket Aces, simply because they are the strongest possible starting hand. They are but two cards and Texas Hold'em is a game of seven cards. As strong as they are, Pocket Aces have few ways to improve (there are only two other Aces left in the pack for you to hit and you'd need four exact cards to make a straight) and you need to always be aware of that.

That said though, if you have raised strongly with your Aces in the first place then you will usually have narrowed the field down to, hopefully, just one opponent and you should be able to get some idea of the type of hand they're holding. All you have to do in these circumstances is be aware of what will beat you.

If you play two red aces and three suited black cards come down on the flop then you HAVE to respect that your opponent might now have a flush or at least a strong flush daw. The same goes for three cards which make a straight possible. If the turn card comes and the situation gets worse then you will need to be brave enough to throw those Aces away if your opponent is clearly showing that they've hit their hand.
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