A Practical Guide to Playing Pocket Pairs in Free Poker Games

It never surprises me how underestimated pocket pairs are in the world of poker. Ok, before I get carried away, I should also say on the contrary they're also a hell of a lot worse than you may think! Again a lot of this has to be put into comparison on how much you're betting. To be honest for me this makes no difference as I always believe you should play the free poker games with the same mentality as if you were betting your house.

Ok to start with if the pot odds are about four to one it's relatively secure to call, although a drawback, you won't be pocketless after. Four to one may make you think that you should be calling every pocket pair but at the early stages it's very difficult.

By folding a couple more times now could potentially saving you a lot of money in the long run. If the blinds are quite small compared to the money on the table, and you have gigantic unspoken odds it's a good time to see these low odd hands.

When the blinds are few and far between then there's not too much to fear monetary wise. As if you call every pocket pair you will see fewer blinds over a 3/4 of an hour spell.

Pocket pairs are mostly just something to see a flop with and get away from easy but in rare cases you may even consider going/calling all-in with them. I wouldn't recommend pushing with anything less then 66 as A2-A5 are popular hands these days. I remember when I first started playing poker and I found out that missing the flop with AK your still usually over 30% to hit by the river so I would just push all in regardless.

I use to believe that a thirty percent chance was a favourable amount when talking odds, but as you become more experienced you understand that the only time these odds pay out is the rare occasion your put in a scenario and have to call. Learn your trade playing free poker games before moving on to the money tables so you can understand these rules and odds first hand.