When you’re playing Texas Holdem one of the hands that can get you in a lot of trouble if you’re not careful is when you’re dealt a small pocket pair. For the sake of this article we will consider small pocket pairs to be any pair from 22/77. You want to make sure that you consider several factors before playing small pocket pairs and they include the following.

Check out the position you have in the hand as it’ll be an important determining factor on whether or not you make the call. If you’re in early position then you run into the risk of being raised by someone who acts later in the hand preflop, which would put you in an awkward situation. If you’re in late position then you might be able to get away with limping into the pot for the cost of the big blind.

You don’t really want to call a large raise when you have a small pocket pair because your options are fairly limited. You will only basically be able to win the pot if you hit trips or if you hit a 4 card straight somehow and it holds up. This isn’t a premium hand by any stretch of the imagination and you don’t want to raise with this type of hand until you’ve improved upon the pair.

When you’re facing an all-in whether it be a cash game or a tournament you don’t want to make the call with a low pocket pair. Often I see players call all-ins in tournaments with low pocket pairs and they at best have a roughly 50% shot at winning the hand although it can often be a lot lower.

If you play the hand and make it to the flop then you really only want to play the hand further if you’ve hit your trips. If you haven’t then you need to consider who is betting the pot. If the player is bluffing often then you need to consider calling, but it still isn’t the most profitable play to make over the long run.

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