Should aces and kings be slowplayed or pushed with?

Recently I have been slowplaying some of my aces and kings in my sit n go's and tournaments and this has been hurting me. Often I let them see the flop before I start betting big and oftentimes im betting into two pair. I'll make a small raise preflop or call a small raise, but i havent been pushing. Any advice?

Just a guess, but I'd say 9 out of 10 will tell you to push and a few of those 9 will clarify with specific situations or positions to push.

I'm in the 10% that will say slowplaying is OK 'most' of the time. There are situations where I will push, or at least put a small raise on them. Big raises or all-ins preflop is just inviting disaster, imo.

Big Slick is called a 'premium hand', while I call it 'over-rated'. It's only good if you hit the flop or want to constantly bluff that you DID.

Cash games and live tables, play them stronger. They at least carry a little more respect when accompanied with a bigger bet.

Im only refering to pocket aces and pocket kings. Im not a huge fan of A/K, never seems to slide my way.

Re-reading the OP, you may have been referring to pocket pairs. If that's the case, a strong bet is OK, but only marginally keeps trash hands out of play in online SnG's and tourneys.

No matter how you play them, callers online will STILL hit their 2 pair and sukouts. I just personally don't buy into the 'math only' crudolla of 'in the long run'. Figure that 'long run' to be over a few million hands with that particular pair.

Throw in that unpredictable 'variance' that keeps getting the blame for losses, just figure that your BR has to survive 300,000 losing hands of every million, in whatever order they fall on the board.

The 'all-in' universe exists within a parallel universe called 'all-out'.

I think i live in the "all-out" universe, cause whenever i go "all-in" i end up being "all-out" of money.

I think you said it yourself "it has been hurting you" slow playing is
dangerous, if you have the nuts it is ok, but never give your opponent a
free card if, make them pay to see the next card if you are ahead in the
hand. If you are talking about A/K then there are two schools of thought:
1. Raise 2 or 3 x blinds-5 or 6 if you are seeking heads up action.
2. If you have AA, slow play if you are in early position if you want to
disguise your hand strength, this can backfire though because you will get
alot of limpers.
3. Be careful of trying to get it all with one hand sometime it is better to
take down the pot and move on to the next hand instead of slow playing your way to a suckout.

I would slow play with any faces cards on the flop but i would get people out of the hand with a possible straight draw but lots of times it depends on the players and the point in the tournament.

well i have learned the hard way on this one. but i feel it all depends on the players in the hand that have either called the blind before you or the non aggressive ones after you with the aces and kings it is never good to give a no bet prior to the flop. for fear that you might have 3 or more callers to the blind then you have to hope that your hand holds up . so i say bet but dont get overly aggressive if the blinds are 20 and 40 then i would bet 200 or double a raise before you . but remember to watch all players and there styles so that you dont walk in to a trap

The Harrington books do a nice job talking about when to slow-play.

Slow-playing is extremely risky, and the reasons have been well covered elsewhere on the forum. Ask yourself, why are you slow-playing? It's to conceal the strength of your hand, right? Well, online, the majority of players don't know or care what you have in your hand. They are betting on the strength of their hand alone. Against those players, all you're doing is giving them free cards and reducing the value of your hand.

I generally like to raise a sufficient amount with Aces and Kings to limit my competition. Fundamentally, Aces and Kings do not draw well. The most you can hope to improve your hand is to get trips. Limping in with AAs or KKs to me is a prescription for disaster. If someone can see a flop for nothing they will. The more people in the hand the greater the chance after the flop that you already have persons with two pair or trips or a straight or flush draw. Furthermore, the more people in a hand almost assures if an ace hits the board in the case of pocket kings, someone will have a pair.

I think slow playing a pair of aces may be necessary if you are severely short-stacked in a tournament or if you play it carefully and are ready to lay down your hand if need be. Of course, a flop of low diverse numbered cards all of differents suits would be ideal. But you can never count out the possibility that someone has made two pair or trips on the flop. You can cut off draws by raising but if you are already behind you are in trouble.

No one says you can't raise pre-flop and still make a big pot. Its difficult for people to know whether or if you are holding a pocket pair just because you raise pre-flop. They may well think u have AK or AQ or QQ or other hands.

The only time to slowplay Aces or Kings is UTG against loose/aggressive players. Good way to get paid out.
Big raises sometimes get called but how many times have you had pocket aces and only collected the blinds?
Early in game with small blinds it is always best to go slowly and try and build pot without giving away your strength. If you get outdrawn, so what you don't lose much. Later on with big blinds you have to go big, but again position is always important. Small bet early big bet late.

The best times to slowplay are when the blinds are kinda high. More players are under pressure from the blinds to make a move so many shortstacks may attack your limp, so this is a good time to slowplay. Early in the tournament it's better to just raise. And a good fact to know is when you take AA and put it up against several other reasonable hands, a few PP and a suited connector and KJ (or a few other high cards), AA is only a little over 50% to win.

There is the odd situation where you can slowplay AA/KK preflop and most involved LAG players.

-If you are UTG or UTG+1 and it is VERY likely that the pot is going to be raised because you have 1 or 2 aggressive players to act. So then you have 2 options
1. check/raise in order to build the pot size and isolate. The one problem with this is it absolutely screams that you have a monster. Still alot of LAG players are too dumb to realise/accept this fact (bad LAG players think everybody reraises with nothing like they do).
2. if you aren't going to get many callers and you are going to be HU (or in a 3 way pot max) vs a LAG then you could flat call preflop, check the flop and let him fire away. And if he did catch a piece of the flop if you check raise the flop you might very well get him to shove. However i'd only ever do this with AA, because if you have KK and an ace comes on the flop and he has A rag then you should rightly want to kill yourself.

Only other place i would slow play is like ben said...when the blinds are rising and you are pretty sure a short stack will shove after you if you limp.

So basically you have to be in early position and you have to be almost positive that the pot is going to get raised after you. If you limp from EP and it becomes a 5 way limped pot or something then you are completely ****ed.

Well, it depends how many hands are playing!
If you have more then 4 hands , you should raise your bet. By doing this you will get rid of all the bad hands that might hit somthing on the flop!
if its you and another 2/3 players you should make them tink that they have the lead and then nail them on the river! most chances you win !

If someone can see a flop for nothing they will.

The more people in the hand the greater the chance after the flop that you already have persons with two pair or trips or a straight or flush draw.

Furthermore, the more people in a hand almost assures if an ace hits the board in the case of pocket kings, someone will have a pair.

Wise words...

In summary, bet hard to minimise the competition to 1-on-1

in a tourney i always push and push hard but in a cash game just to get the call i slow play... i had to fold aces twice cuz of a full house this guy turned on me at one cash table.. i couldnt believe it, i was sooo pissed

i like to slow play trips... usually catch the boat on the river, so it almost always works really well for me...lol... alot cash games won to the trips

I agree with one of the other posts. Slow playing in Freeroll or low dollar tourneys is a receipe for disaster. At least one but probably more will call and someone will hit the flop hard. Bet heavy in a table game, better to win small than lose a bunch calling with A-A or K-K.

If I slow play, I bet K-K heavier than A-A. I do not want to see the Ace on the flop so I try to take it down pre-flop. Howver, do not get pot committed because if you have the kings and the ace comes on the flop your probably beat.

Better players, I have heard, say to win small and keep stacking up the chips is best

Slow playing Pocket AA and KK generally leads to trouble. I have learned the hard way. When I have a premium starting hand. I want to make sure that those who choose to stay have to pay to play. The size of the raise will depend on position.

i would not slow play big pairs before the flop unless it gets folded to me in the blinds or maybe on the button. The reason is you simply want to play big pairs vs. a small number of foes (max. 2). On the flop i might check if the board looks safe (no likely draws) and if the opposition is an aggressive player.

8 out of 10 times i will play them aggressivly regardless of the circumstances, though.

, I hate slow playing. I would raise pre-flop 4x BB, I dont want the little or BB limping in and blindside my monsters with 7-3 unsuit , cause they caught 2 pair or made a str8 ,

I tend to win small pots with pocket A's or K's or lose huge pots. If you're UTG or close to I believe you should triple the blind at least. It gets rid of the garbage hands and hopefully you get some legitimate callers. Ultimately it depends on who you're playing against. I would only limp in if there are some overly aggressive players. Ideally you only want a few callers to limit the possibilities.

Pros for slowplaying AA/KK preflop (by slowplaying I mean flat calling a raise or 3 bet):

-Helps you mix up your game, keeps you less predictable and balances your range;

-People behind you might try to squeeze you , in which case you get go over the top;
-Lets you get away from the hand cheaply if the board becomes very dangerous and heavy action is developing;

- Allows you to trap poor postflop players who just can't get away from top pair but would fold their hand a lot of the time you reraise preflop.


Cons for slowplaying AA/KK preflop:

- Gives the preflop aggressor free cards to draw out on you;

- Keeps you from putting as much money as you can in the pot when you're certain you're a big favorite;

- Entices calls behind you, which reduces your equity in the pot;

- Doesn't give you much information about your opponent's range.


I probably left out important details because this is a fast analysis, like discussing stack sizes, but by comparing the two options you reach a conclusion - you really don't need to slowplay these hands against weak players, because they won't be paying attention to how you play, will call your reraise everytime with any cards worth raising for them and more players will certainly call as well behind you, creating a multiway pot you do not want. So, against bad players, don't slowplay. Against good players, sure, you should do it once in a while to vary your game a bit. Hope this helps...

The only time I think you should slow play AA or KK is when you are in the the cut-off, on the button (preferred) or in the SB and you have very aggressive players to your left and all have folded to you. You DON'T want alot of limpers to out draw you!

Obviously you want to play them so as to get the most money in possible while you're ahead and lose the least when you're behind. So raise them up preflop as much as you think your opponents will bear, but don't give them proper odds to beat you, after the flop if there is one, just make sure not to give enough odds to draws and hope they don't suck out on you anyhow. If your opponents aren't likely to play with you without being ahead of you postflop, try to reach showdown cheaply or fold, otherwise keep playing them aggressively until you have reason to believe they're beat.