Common Mistakes made with Pocket Aces
March 11, 2009
Often times we will hear sob stories about how players lost all their chips when their pocket aces got beat by a set, a flush, two pair or whatever. The player always seems to think that they had the worst luck and should never have lost the hand.
They never seem to look at what they did wrong during the hand that allowed them to lose their entire stack. Pocket aces are the best starting hand in poker. Notice that I said starting hand and not hand. This is because, believe it or not, pocket aces can be beat by a wide variety of hands.
The trick to playing pocket aces is getting the maximum value for them, without putting yourself in too much danger of going broke. Here are some typical mistakes that a lot of players make when playing their pocket aces:
1. THINKING THAT YOUR POCKET ACES CAN’T LOSE
This is a very common mistake that is mostly made by beginners who have never felt the pain of their aces not holding up against a much worse starting hand. Aces can lose. In fact if all players at a poker table flip their hands up pre-flop and there is no betting allowed, the aces will actually win less than half the time.
2. TRYING TO SLOW PLAY POCKET ACES
Ok, sometimes slow playing your aces will work and you will win a lot more chips than you would have if you had bet and lost all of your customers. However, on the other hand there are the other times when slow playing your aces gives other players some free cards and these cards actually improve their hands to better than pocket aces.
These times when your opponent actually is able to outdraw you, you will likely lose a large pot. Therefore it is smart in most situations to raise with your pocket aces pre-flop and continue to bet them aggressively throughout the hand. One exception to this rule would be when you are in early position pre-flop and there are several pre-flop poppers behind you who typically raise pre-flop when there are limpers. When you feel you will get raised pre-flop it can be good to limp with aces because you will still be able to re-raise when the betting comes back around to you.
3. NOT BELIEVING YOU ARE BEAT
Usually this mistake comes when you have already made mistake number one or two. If your opponent has been calling your bet or even raising you should stop to think about what kind of hands he may be doing this with. Often times you will be able to see that your opponent must have a better hand than you. For example, if your opponent has just pushed all-in on the river with a community of (2,7,8,9,10) you can be fairly confident that your opponent has the jack there. This is when you have to face the truth and accept that your aces haven’t doubled your chip stack like you were hoping. Cut your losses and wait for the next time you see the pocket rockets as your hole cards.
Other General Poker Strategy Articles
- To Show or Not to Show Your Hand
- Online Poker Tells
- How to Deal with Bad Beats
- Online Poker Table Selection
- Using Online Poker Tools to Your Advantage
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