Playing Your High Pocket Pairs in Poker
A lot of new poker players with little to no experience usually get too excited when they get a pocket pair as their starting hand, especially if the pocket pair is relatively high; high pocket pairs are pocket pairs of 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces. This is actually a big mistake to make, because most of them will end up feeling overconfident and bet more than they can afford only to be beaten by Two Pairs or higher.
When you start a round with a high pocket pair, you can raise the bet by twice the amount of the big blind maximum. Raising more than that is not necessary because it will only be increasing the risks you have to cope with as the game progresses. The raise should be more than enough to scare opponents with relatively weak starting hands into folding.
After the flop, see if your hand develops the way you want it to. Simply assess the strongest possible hand that can be constructed with the community cards and you will be able to see if your pocket pair is still in the lead. If you have a pocket pair of Queens and the flop shows off-suited 2-7-J, you can confidently make another raise knowing that your pair is still the strongest possible hand.
Proceed with care and make sure you observe your opponents’ betting patterns and tells closely. Do the same evaluation after seeing the turn and the river in order to determine if you can really win the round.

