On one hand big pairs such as aces or kings are supposed to win you a lot of money in the long term. On the other hand you might have also lost huge pots with them. So how do you play these monsters?

In many articles on poker, you probably read that large pocket pairs like AA or KK should be raised or reraised almost always except in special situations. The basic theoretical idea is that you really want to limit the number of opponents in order to avoid luck to hit a garbage hand and destroy your beautiful hand.

What about middle pairs? Indeed, too many players are really struggling to fold their mid pocket pairs in the range from fives to tens. Such hands can be very strong to raise or call for set mining at the flop, but will be hard pressed to cope with serious aggression. This is very theoretical and an untold number of factors must be taken into account, but it is usually very difficult to defend this type of hand after a 3-bet, for example. You will likely be in a coin flip situation, or worse if your opponent has a pair just above yours.

The case of strong aces. While hands like AK or AQ are obviously strong for any poker player, remember that you do not have in any case a made hand and that you will need to hit the board to beat your opponent. I do not of course mean that you no longer play these hands, but that you must know to fold them if needed.

Indeed, after a raise or a 3 bet for example, unless you have a perfect knowledge of your opponents, it is usually very difficult to make 4-bet or to make a simple call with this kind of drawing hand.

In poker you need to understand situations and one of the most important skill is to know to fold. Fold or raise is a good approach. Either be the aggressor with such hands that have both fold equity and drawing potential, or fold if you are under the impression that your opponent has you beaten and will not fold easily.