Pocket Aces - Aren't what the Use to Be

Sooooooooooooooooo..... you look down and there they are; AA as your starting hand. According to the odds you will win 80% of the time. Well, I'm here to say poket Aces owe me some wins! Sunday night I got beat 4 times holding pokcet AA; Flushes, 2 pair, trips, a straight and a full house over AAA.

The reason I'm witing this is to remind us all the AA is a good hand but it certainly CAN and WILL be beat, particularily these days when so many players stay in with Flush and straight draws.

Good luck at the tables.

Aces are exactly what they used to be.

4 losses with AA is such a small sample size.

Oh and being beaten by a flush, 2 pair, trips, straight, and boat = 5 losses, not 4.

Please show me the HH where the full house won over your AAA (assume you mean trip aces). I don't believe you.

Bud, go to my vent and you'll see the hits I took with my aces, and yet I still get a tingle inside when I pick them up. Straight up, AA will lose 20% of the time, and they will win 80% of the time, so that's good enough for me, I'm on a shitty run, lol.

Why don't you believe him?

I agree with zachvac not possible to be beat by a boat if your holding aa and hit one on the board. I also don't agree with your analysis of aces if your playing no limit then you should be able to get any decent players off of draws if your betting correctly. Sure they're gonna get beat but i'll take them every time.

I was going to say the exact same thing. I was trying to think of a way in which you can lose with AAA (2 of the A's being in your hole cards) to a full house and it simply is not possible.

Because if there is a full house the board is paired, if you have trip aces (with AA in your hand) on a paired board you have aces full, the best possible full house.

He didn't say he had trip Aces, just AAA.

So...it could be AA vs A2246 board and he is lying. Or it could simply be AX on a AA265 board and opponent is holding 55.

...that said, HH would be nice.

Or it could be what happens to Kid Poker all the time on Highstakes poker, where he flops a full, yet somehow loses to quads.

Though, that's a rare rare thing, well except to him he's like losing to quads, like no tomorrow.

But the OP's whole problem is with pocket aces as the title says, so w/pocket aces it is impossible. If it's just Ax...doesnt fit in his argument

Boom. Good point.

HH, please.

I don't know where you get 80% of the time you'll win with AA, according to my stats with over 12k hands, it's more like 85%

pocket rockets dont always gurantee a win, if the game was played before the flop yeh youd win 100 percent of the time. but the game is played all the way to the river which it should be.

I didn't know that so may people would actually read and respond. One observe who noted 5 beats not 4 is correct. The hand where is was beaten by a full house I was holding AQ suited not AA. I stand corrected.

YEAH I HATE ACES TOO I LOSE WITH THEM MORE THEN I WIN WTF 80% MORE LIKE 50 50 WITH THEM LMAO I PLAY THEM BUT WHEN I PUSH I'LL PRAY THAT NO ONE CALLS LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

uuuuhhhhhh no.

pocket A's are just as bad as any other PP beause they limit you hands as to the possibilities of the diiferent hands you can create and they ar only good against one player if more than one callks you can be farely sure you will lose

Sooooooooooooooooo..... You look down and there they are; AA as your starting hand. According to the odds you will win with AA 80% to 90% of the time. Well, I'm here to say pocket Aces owe me some wins! Last week I got beat 5 times holding pocket AA to; a Flush, 2 pair, trips, a straight and a full house.

I could and should have avoided some of these beats. The reason I'm writing this is to remind us all that while AA is a great hand you still have to play it correctly. It certainly CAN and WILL be beaten from time to time, particularly these days when so many players staying in with Flush and straight draws. AA is hard to lay down, but a great lay down that keep you from the rail is far better than winning a few hundred chips if it helps you get to a final table!

LOL to All!

obiviously if you just flat call or raise the minimum, this is more likely to happen since you let in more players to outdraw your A-A

Yup. Isolating is key.

I love playing AA whether I lose or win with them. Because I usually feel better about myself afterwards either way...

1. I win a huge pot by playing it perfectly
2. I accept I lost a pot unluckily because I know I truly didn't make a bad play.
3. Made bad play and learn from mistakes.

I find myself wanting to get mad at myself for playing a hand badly after I misread after slow-playing AA or calling a raise that I thought was a bluff. I try to isolate as much as possible, so I have a comfort level to an extent.

Freerolls:
Sometimes, on a table full of donks in the early stages of a freeroll, I'll get 3 to 4 callers all-in, and I frequently lose. Otherwise, I usually end up not getting any callers in mid to late stages of freerolls. That is, if I go all in.

My problem is when I am in the mid stages, and there are three or more all-ins in front of me, and I would have to go all-in to call. It's less than a coin-flip, and I read about trying to avoid coin-flops at opportune times...

So, my question is if I want to stay alive with a mid-sized stack, do I call and go all-in with 3 or more all-ins in front of me? I have AA, but there is probably less than a 50% chance of winning the hand? Do I go with equity and know that I will win more than 25% (say 4 players including myself) of the time? That is still a coin flip?

I think the key to playing AA is the stage of the tournament you are at when you draw them. With 3 to 4 all-ins ahead of you "early" in a freeroll or small buy-in tourney you have to consider laying it down because the odds say someone will hit a set or a flush. Now as the "ITM" point approaches I think you have to push especially if you have more chips than your "all-in" players ahead of you. Someone once said you have to being playing to get in the money and have a chance to win the tourney later on. You have to decide if it is important enough to you to get in the money and have that chance to win or just see what the outcome will be of a coin flip.

I am glad to see this post simulating some great thought and conversations. I was just in a tournament and had AA in 1st (early) position. I made a minium raise hoping to get some takers. Only two stayed in the hand. Out came the flop and now have QUADS with straight and flush draws possible. I check and both players check until the river. I make the minimum bet and get one fold and one all in. Increase my chips by 150%.................YES!!

!

I look forward to hearing more from the community on the subject.

You want my honest thoughts? You made a bad play and got lucky. With aces you want to be in against one and only one other player. The odds of aces holding up goes down exponentially if there's more than 1 other person in the hand. You don't want some takers, you want ONE taker. Next, you slowplayed, which you did fine until the river. Then, you made a ridiculous underbet (about 1/6-1/8 of the pot) and got ridiculously lucky that someone who hit their draw went all in.

Next time, you should either limp and hope for a raise that you can rereaise, or preferably, make the standard play of raising to 3-4 times the BB. If you want to check the flop and turn, that's okay I guess, but you need to get some chips in the pot. What if someone just had a pair or 2 pair on the river? They easily could just flat call your min bet when they would probably have called a much bigger bet as well. Don't be afraid that people will fold. Get your chips in the pot and force the action.

AA is not so easy to play as many players think...
If you get them you want to double up. And that is the problem.
If you slowplay them and get many callers you are alredy in trouble...
If you raise sometimes everyone lays there hand down and you just get the blinds....
Try to play them correct and you will get many chips often....
And the correct way depends on many circumstances!

You also have to know when to fold them, and that is not easy to do!

So today I was the AA buster. I held poket KK and got a BIG re-raise from a big stack that was folding his way to the final table. I was positive he had AA. Almost folded but decided to see a flop. Out comes K 10 6 rainbow. I raised small and he pushed all in. I didn't have him nearly covered but it got me a nice stack and helped my qualify for a tournament this weekend.


Now he's wondering about playing AA

Wow... you should never have trouble with AA. Ever!!! If you are, you need to read more in the strategy section!!! Never and I repeat Never limp with AA, ever!!! I don't care if your mom said never say never. I'M SAYING NEVER!!! all you are doing by limping is asking for trouble. If you play AA the way you should, you're going to get one maybe two callers.

just a quick run down:

AA in EP: Raise 3 to 4 x if you have someone push you all in preflop, fine, that's what you want with AA, if you get sucked out on, oh well. If you get called and there is a flush draw or a straight draw you want to make a big bet, pot sized or a little more. If noone calls you pre flop, oh well, just take the blinds. The only time I would slow play this is if you hit your set on the flop and you don't have a drawey board.

AA in position: if you have a bunch of limpers, just a standard raise here 3x + 1 for every limper. if someone has raised and it's to you, I suggest a reraise to isolate. in some situations you might want to smooth call with AA. On the flop with a low board, I would value bet on all streets. Again, if there is a drawey board jam the pot, take it down early, don't let them draw or make em pay if they do. Again, if you hit the flop it's ok to slow play here. However, I'm not a big fan of slow playing. If you are playing micro stakes and freerolls, noone will know the difference. Remember if you are playing in position you control the size of the pot. use the information you have on villian to get a good idea of his range.

Just a quick run down, it's late and I'm tired.

We love seeing aces when we look at our hole cards. I will always love to see them no matter how much heartache i get form them sometimes. Best thing to do with Aces is just increase your odds of winning with them. Don't limp with them. Don't minimal raise with them. The more players up against your aces, well puts your aces in a vulnerable spot. We got to be discipline on playing them. If theboard is scary for aces, then fold or minimize your possible loss.

AA if you want to just call then if you dont hit play it like any other pocket pair otherwise I recommend raising big and cut your losses if they fold you dont make much but your still alive if they call pray a lot but dont throw the rest away just cause your in love with your hand.

AA is still always the same Pocket Rockets they have always been.

The difference is playing online and the much wider range of hands people will play. The term 'isolate' usually fits right in with AA, but online players just aren't being 'isolated'. They are adrenalin junkies that need, must have, the rush of the win.

Besides that, 'Cracking Aces' has become almost a World Class 'sport'.

AA is still the same hand it's always been.


One pair.

Which is beaten by almost every other type of hand in the game.


Just remember..one pair is usually no good if all the money goes in!

People who lose often with AA forget this.

If you could have AA every hand, then you'd take it, but personally my favourite hand depends on the flop