Alright, I found a big leak in my game, and I think I'm playing my pocket pairs all messed up. My trouble is, I have a problem letting them go. I think I also have an aggression problem, and I usually keep betting until someone tells me to stop by re-raising. By the way, I'm playing the 25NL games on PP, where people call and limp with anything...

Here is my strategy...

Before the flop in an unraised pot, I usually raise any pocket pair (including 22) to about 2 bucks (usually a standard raise at these limits), hopefully to chase out other garbage hands and slim the field. *This may be my problem, cause I read you're supposed to limp with these hands and hope to hit a set* If the pot was raised before me, I just call the raise.

(In this post I'm assuming that I led the betting before the flop, and am first to act after the flop... having position makes playing pairs a little easier)

After the flop, even if I miss or the board is all overcards, I throw out another bet of about 2/3 the pot. Opponents don't know what cards to put you on, so they may think that you had overcards yourself and hit on the flop. So about 60% of the time everyone folds and I take it down. Now if I miss the flop and get reraised, it's an easy laydown, but I think my problem comes in if someone just calls my bet. What should I do on the turn? Do I just check to the person that called me and give up control of the hand? Do I continue to bet (but maybe smaller)? What if I have 99, and the board is 35J with only one over card (that isn't really that high) do I asume that he has a J and let the hand go? Sometimes I will continue to throw out bets until the river where they finally fold, but I get burned when I'm called down and my puny little pairs are busted.

(If I hit the set, the strategy is easy since I probably have the best hand and all I need to do is figure out the way to extract the most money... Make marginal bets at calling stations, slow play aggressive maniacs, etc. Of course the strategy changes if the board has a potential straight or flush)

Any advice would be much appreciated...