Playing two pair at online poker may be different by playing it in the real poker because there are additional elements which influence the evolution of the game. The strategies presented in the following lines are for two pair when you match both your hole cards with two of the flop cards. If there is a pair on the flop, then strategy is more like playing either an over pair/top pair, or middle/bottom pair. For example, if the flop is T55 and you have JT, I treat this like top pair for strategy purposes. You will flop two pair matching both hole cards approximately once every 50 hands. Similar to sets, your main concerns with two pair are flushes, straights, and strong draws to these hands. One good thing about two pair is that you can be less worried about your opponents holding a set since you have two of the flop cards in your hand.
It is very important to play two pair strongly with two suited or two connected flops since you do not want to give a free card and you want to collect bets from your opponents making draws. This is especially true when the pot is large or you are against several opponents. When the pot is large, almost always bet out or raise at every opportunity. Only consider check-raising if you are confident an opponent will bet and your check raise will force your opponents with gut-shot or backdoor flush draws to call two small bets. Check-raising with top two pair is risky since it is less likely that your opponents were helped by the flop. You should usually only try a check-raise against an aggressive pre flop raiser in late position who will almost always bet. Similar to sets, if the pot is very large and it would be difficult to drive out opponents on the flop, you might wait to raise the turn if this will give you a better chance of driving out opponents.
It can be seen that playing online poker is a challenge for everyone! Still, it is a challenge that can become very productive if the players follow the rules and develop a specific game tactic.
