In this free online poker coaching lesson learn low pocket pairs strategy.

Low pocket pairs, 2/2 through 9/9, will, long-term, provide you with more wins that any other two pocket cards you'll ever be dealt.

More than pocket A/A, pocket K/K, pocket Q/Q? Surely not possible I hear you cry! Not possible, it's a fact.

In addition to being superb against good players they are also great for destroying those annoying "all in all the time" donk players.

Why Are Low Pockets So Good?

You have about a 6% chance of being dealt a pocket pair of any type. This equates to approx. every 16 or 17 hands.

1) With a pocket pair you have about a 1 in 8 chance to get a set at the flop (3 of a kind).

2) Based on this you will be able to play a post-flop set approximately once in every 133 hands. At a 10 player table that equates to once every 13 small/big blind bets you deposit on.

3) In terms of playability you can play low pockets from all table positions with some provisos, namely, from Early only at a cost not more than the Big Blind, not more than 2x the BB from Middle and 3x the BB in Late Position.

4) In addition when you have them you should not raise the big blind pre flop.

5) Plus if you limp in when seated in Early Position, or you've called a 2x the big blind bet from Middle Position, and, a raise has occurred to 3x the big blind, plus, there are 5 or more players in the hand, you should call the 3 times the big blind bet from both Early and Middle positions at the table.

Why?
With 5 or more players in the hand, there is an increased likelihood that the flop is going to show 2 or 3 low cards.

This is because it's likely that the players left in the hand have 1 or more paint cards.

Now, the one set we end up with becomes a powerful weapon. Especially if it is a set of 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, 7's, 8's, or 9's. Indeed, Aces to 10s are heavy weapons but with the lower pairs you have a better chance to do evil to your opponents.

The reason is that many players, especially poor ones, do not fear low cards that hit the board as part of the flop.

This example hand illustrates the point.
You're seated Late Position with pocket 5c/5h. There is a 'bad' player with Jh/7c and a 'good' player with Ad/Qd.

Our better player raises 3x the big blind and the poorer one calls, you also call, everyone else folds. The flop hits the board, and it contains Ah/Jd/5s; giving you a set of Fives. The good player bets 3x the big blind again.

The bad player raises by 3x which is mad as he has a middle pair and the good player clearly betted onto the flopped Ace. You call as does the good player.

The turn card is a 7d. It gives the 'good' player a nut flush draw (Ad/Qd/Jd/7d), and he holds the high board pair (Ad/Ah). The bad player gets 2 pairs, JJ and 77. You have a set of Fives (5c/5h/5s).

Now are you worried that the river will bring a card that fills the flush or a Jack or a Seven?

Don't be! In total there are 9 flush-maker cards, and 4 full-house-maker cards, 13; less the remaining Five. It's a flush-maker but will also give you quad Fives. Thus, there are 12 cards that would cause you to lose, and 34 cards that will bring you the pot. You're about a 3 to 1 favorite to win.

The river helps no one. The bad player moves all in, you call and take the pot.

So how was it that this pocket 5 situation was so good?
Simple, the set of 5's was hidden and this is always the case when low pocket pairs are turned into sets by the flop.

In addition nobody could get a read on these cards. You almost always slow-play it such that opponents, 'bad' or 'good', cannot identify the powerful set the flop created.

The 'low pocket pair strategy' is used all pro poker players yet is little known. After all low pocket pairs win more money at a poker table than any other two cards so why shout about it!

So as a next step, go and practice how to play low pocket pairs on poker free online games sites and then move on to low stakes and make money!