I hate Pocket Aces -

Originally Posted by slycbnew

fwiw, I like weregoat's posts - but I cringed when this was posted almost 2 months ago.

His point, I think, is a good one - it can be difficult to play AA postflop, while other hands are much easier - though of course those other hands are not as profitable over the long run (partly why they're easier to play - if you miss the flop, you generally fold, since they're low value unimproved).

However, I'm always amazed by how much traffic any thread titled "JJ/QQ/KK/AK are overrated/difficult/suck/whatever" can generate and feared that this thread would still be alive at the beginning of May. And of course today is the last day of May, and it's still kicking.

Random thoughts:

We all know that multiway AA/KK/QQ isn't nearly as strong as HU, so obviously we're a whole lot happier to be HU than multiway, and we're open raising/3betting/raising over limpers preflop to encourage getting HU.

That doesn't mean, though, that we ought to be raising in such a way w these hands that we're just going all in, or making a raise that is simply a huge steal, unless stacks are short - at 100bb's deep, that'd be silly unless we know that Villains are willing to stack off. If we're at 20bb's or less, then of course shoving makes sense (though it's exploitable if you're not shoving a wider range than that).

There's an entitlement problem w KK/AA in particular, a sense that these hands are such prohibitive favorites preflop that anyone stupid enough to call us when we have these hands deserve to lose their stacks, and we deserve to win their stacks. Postflop can be hard to play w these hands, because there's a good chance that others will bet hands worse than ours (draws, top pair) that we should be calling/shoving over as well as a good chance that substantial action means we're crushed (sets etc.). Reads on other players are critical here, as well as hand reading skills.

Siginificant multiway action on the flop should tell you at the very least that you're in potential trouble w your AA's. Depending on your reads on the situation (other players, board) you may be better off folding and looking for a better spot.

There's also a "fear factor" (don't know a better way to put it) that leads to concerns about someone calling pf, flop, and turn to try to catch a runner/runner winner. BUT we actually want them to do this, and want to be stuffing the pot w as much money as we think they'll call to attempt this. Sure, we're going to lose money when they hit, but think of how uncommon it is to actually hit (you're not calling substantial pf, flop, and turn bets to hit runner/runner, are you? why not?) and how much you'll win when it doesn't.

We're not trying to win every hand, nor are we entitled to win every time we raise preflop. Sometimes you do have to fold. If a tight passive player calls me pf when I'm holding AA and he check/raises the turn, and I'm unimproved, I'm going to have to think of a reason to continue in the hand more than I'm going to have to think of a reason to fold.

If you use either HEM or PT3 and have a significant number of hands played (say, 10K+, in which you will have been dealt AA somewhere around 47 times - fwiw 10K is actually not considered significant for most purposes, including this), look at the ranking of hands you've played by winrate and by $won. Seriously, if the highest ranked hand in both categories is NOT AA, there's something wrong with the way you're playing them. If you would rather be dealt any other hand, you're being superstitious.

/end rambling post

Originally Posted by slycbnew

I'm overstating it. AA/KK/QQ/AK and so forth should be at the top. A few bad beats w AA's, a few flopped sets w TT, and it'll change things.

I don't think I've ever had a 17k hand stretch where AA wasn't number 1, but I'm not a big enough sample by myself to say that's significant.

Originally Posted by atlantafalcons0

That makes absolutely no sense.

If you lose with aces more often than you win - it's not the hand IT'S YOU!