I've been following alot of the discussion about pocket pairs. Seems like there's been good discussion about AA, KK and small pocket pairs, but I'm interested in better ways to play those mid pairs (JJ, TT).

I use two distinct strategies pre-flop for these groupings.

With big pairs, I bet half pot to pot size (depending on the table) to limit the field. My thinking for this is that KK is a stong hand unimproved as long as I don't let the 35s stick around for a lucky flop. I also put QQ in this "big pair" category.

With small pairs, I follow the advice in this site's strategy as well. I try to see the flop for cheap and figure that I need a set to really play them further. Apart from really raggy flops, I'm likely to fold my pockets to any reasonable bet if I don't catch a set.

My problem is figuring out where the mid pairs fit in this strategy. Of course TT can win a pot, but any face card on the flop makes this pretty scary. So I don't usually raise TT or less, and just hope for a set. I have been putting JJ in this category too - but I've seen some pretty strong play on JJ pre-flop.

Any thoughts on this topic?