Pocket pairs. Besides ace-rag can be the easiest starting hand in Hold Em' to overplay. Sure it looks great to peek down at a pair knowing you already have a made hand without assistance from the five community cards. Its where you go after the flop that separates the lifetime winners and losers. Many times players will CALL all-in with a weak pocket pair while in a comfortable chip position hoping to race their chips off against two overcards, but most of the time are pleading for the deck to bring a two-outer to save their horrible decision.

Granted poker is gambling and taking flops for coin flips is part of the game, but why subject yourself to chance if you hold an advantage against your opponents? Greg Mueller from Full Tilt.com has a few words of advice on how to make those pocket pairs pay off in the ring games and tourneys. From the Full Tilt.com website here's Greg's advice on making the most of those 3s, 4s, and 5s in your hand and how to limit losing a bundle.

In ring games, I like to build a really small pot when I have these hands in early and middle position. Sometimes I'll make a min raise; other times I'll just limp in. I want to keep the pot small when I have a small or medium pair because I lay them down if I'm faced with a large re-raise.

If I min-raise or limp in and an opponent makes a small raise, I can call, but if I open with a big raise and my opponent comes over the top, I'm not usually getting the right odds to call. By keeping the pot small, I have a better chance of seeing a flop and I may pull other players into the hand. Then if I do flop a set, someone's going to pay me off. To me, the biggest moneymakers in No-Limit ring games are small sets, like 2s and 3s, because they're so disguised.

A lot of players get overly aggressive with the middle pairs: 8s, 9s, and 10s. They raise before the flop with them, but if the blinds fold, they're only going to win a small pot. I'd much rather try to win a big pot by flopping a set. If the flop comes J-8-2 and I have pocket 8s while my opponent has a hand like K-J, I'm going to win a big pot a lot of the time.