Poker players love pocket pairs: they’re always a good hand to have in the pre-flop. Even after the flop, players with good pre-flop hands tend to have the best hands and the highest chances of winning the game. It’s much easier to get three of a kind or even a quad when you have a pocket pair.
However, while a pocket pair of aces is every poker player’s dream, a low pocket pair is something more tricky and not as easy to play.
The best possible strategy is to attempt to get in the flop cheaply. They’re an acceptable, but not a good hand, so it’s not worth it to invest much in them by calling large pre-flop bets, just in order to get to see the flop. In case you get such a high bet before you, simply fold.
As in all FullTilPoker pocket pairs that are not premium (such as pocket aces), your goal should be to get at least some three of a kind after the flop. The odds are pretty much against you, so if you miss the flop, it’s high time to fold. Continuing to pursue such a hand is foolish and in the long term will just make you lose more money than you win.
Another desirable alternative course of the action could be that most of your adversaries to fold before the flop, so that your pair will have more value, but of course, it’s best if you hit the flop and get three of a kind. For this, if everyone folds and you are in late position, you can still raise a bit (by an amount like 3 or 4 times the big blind) and hope that the blinds will fold or just one of them call you, so that you will not have much competition afterwards.
If you actually hit the flop and you get three of a kind, then the best action is probably to check. You can only win if your opponents will have just pairs, so it’s not a hand good enough to raise, unless you want to bluff.
The ideal situation would be when you hit three of a kind and you have as opponent a weak player who overvalues his pocket aces and kings, even after the flop brought his nothing. He will still think he has a good hand and you can get a good deal of money out of his bet.