I usually go to some flash sites with online games, then later ill browse my temporary internet folder for these swf files. Store them in a folder on my drive, then later whenever i wanted to play these flash games i would just simply go over to my saved swf folder and run it from there.
Adobe flash actually has its stand alone flash player. i you just know where to locate them on their site. The only catch is that its description is not clearly defined and explained.
To get the stand alone flash player go to the flash download page and scroll down to the link marked similar to this "Adobe Flash Player Projector Content", Choose an OS version and download it. Double click on the downloaded application and drag swf into it to play.
Thanks for the info, this really helped me out when my school computer would not let me update flash (and adobe does not clearly mark this as a standalone player).