There are three different ways to play pocket pairs. You can raise, call or fold. You can play pocket pairs different ways depending on your strategy and how the other players have acted before you.

Most of the time when you have a pocket pair you will want to play aggressively. Pocket pairs are strong hands and you want to play your strong hands aggressively to win the pot. When you raise or re-raise with pocket pairs, there are three main advantages. Firstly, you can win the pot outright if everyone folds. This is especially important when you are holding a low pocket pair such as 22-66. These hands are usually the best pre-flop, but after the flop, you will almost certainly be faced with over cards and your hand will not likely be the best. Secondly, you can build the pot by getting more money in when you have a strong hand. When you hold one of the best hands like AA or KK, you want other players to put money into the pot, but you don’t want to just let everyone at the table see the flop for free. Thirdly, you show strength by raising before the flop which may allow you to win the pot on the flop, even without the best hand. For example, if you are holding 55 pre-flop and one player calls you with 87 of spades. The flop comes Ah Qc 7d. Your opponent now has a pair of 7’s which is better than your pair of 5’s, but since you made a raise before the flop and indicated strength, he may fold if you make a strong bet on the flop because he thinks you have hit a pair of aces or queens..

Another way to play pocket pairs is simply to call. There are two main advantages to just calling with pocket pairs. Firstly, by calling, you have not indicated strength, and your opponents will not know that you have a strong hand. For example, if you have AA and you just call the big blind which hold K7 of hearts. If the flop comes with a king, such as K 10, 4, you may be able to win a big pot from your opponent who will think his top pair is good. But, if the flop comes K, 7, 4 you will be in a lot of trouble as your opponent will now have 2 pairs and you will still think your over-pair of aces are good. When you have very big pocket pairs it is much safer to raise than just call; however, sometimes you can win a much larger pot by trapping your opponent by just calling with a large pocket pair. This trap play usually works best against a very aggressive opponent. The aggressive opponent may raise with a variety of hands. By just calling their raise, rather than re-raising you will disguise the strength of your hand. Since you opponent is aggressive, they will likely bet out on the flop. Now, you can re-raise them and win a larger pot or continue to trap them by just calling. A second advantage of just calling with pocket pairs is that you can see the flop more cheaply when you have middle or lower pocket pairs such as 22-88. If you miss the flop, you can just throw your hand away without investing much money. If you do hit the flop, your hand is disguised since you didn’t raise pre-flop and you may be able to win a large pot.