Deciding to fold or go all in

sorry about the last post must hit wrong button. Anyways last week i was playing a cash multi tourny game and at the begining before the flop i was holding a poker AA and one person just went all in before the flop, causing everyone else to fold till it came around to me. I decided to go all in also, cause to me no matter what the other person had either i had the best hand to start with or he could be holding a pair of aces aswell so i figured i had a better chance of either winning or tying. when he showed his cards he had pair JJ in his hand, floped turned and i was in lead then the river came up and nother J gave him a 3 of a kind and river came up and dont remember what it was but didnt do me any good and he won....Now should i have folded instead going all in or did i make the right choice just having bad luck?

8 out of 10 times your pocket A's will lose. Just something you have to learn to deal with. It sucks when it happens.... but it does happen.

Obviously depending on where your at and other conditions maybe you shouldve layed it down. But for the most part I think you made the right call.

If I have pocket A's and someone pushes 99.99% of the time Ill be pushing to. Even if someone else already called Im taking the chance.



Better Luck next time.

@ DarkSide. No.

8 out of 10 times, the AA will win over pocket JJ. Two times out of ten, over the long haul, AA will lose to JJ. A suited connector has a better chance against AA than JJ -- but the AA is still a favorite, until the flop hits. That's why, with AA, you want to be HU.

Yes, you have a positive expectation with AA, and should be calling that all-in. Unless a couple of others have called the all-in first-- you do NOT want to be in a three-way or four-way pot. Your AA has much less of an edge, although it remains the pre-flop favorite.

The other time you might not want to call with the AA is when you are on the bubble and have a reasonable expectation of getting to the money if you do not risk your stack. Personally, I would do it even then, but sometimes I have second thoughts when I suddenly am booted to the rail, with no winnings at all. (Sometimes, of course, it pays off and I am in much better shape than I was.) It's a valid choice either way, but no whining allowed.

HHAHHAHAHHA Yeah, my bad. I had that backwards. But thanks for cathcing the slip up. I cant get back in to edit it.


And I also agree with the Bubble play. I could see why someone would lay it down, but again, I also would push with it.

herky35 said:

i was holding a poker AA and one person just went all in before the flop... Now should i have folded instead going all in or did i make the right choice just having bad luck?

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Back when I was new to poker I played in a live game and shoved with A/A. I had one caller, who had K/J and despite me turning a set he rivered a straight. I kept questioning my decision. But it really and it ate me up inside. All the "Should I have's?" and "What if's?" plagued me for a day or two afterward. I had a hard time sleeping htat night because I kept replaying the hand in my head.

That goes away after it happens again... and again.

What it comes down to is, if you could see his hand would you have made the same decision to go all-in? The answer to that should usuaully be "YES! YES! YES! IN A HEARTBEAT!"

You got your money in in the best possible situation. The results were unfortunate, but fairly common. Poker is a game of unfortunate outcomes. A/A is *supposed* to lose to J/J about 1 out of 5 times.

I mean, come on. How big of advantage do you want before you're winning to go all-in? You got all of your money in in the best possible pre-flop situation. Second guessing that is futile.

Exceptions to the rule: If you are on the bubble, with just a few chips, and several people go all-in ahead of you. Then yeah, fold A/A. Tripling up a tiny stack doesn't do you much good, and hopefully one of the shorties will bust to put you in the money.
Also of you're short, on the bubble, and one or two people at the table is likely to be blinded out before the blinds hit you again, then you can fold A/A. Again, doubling/tripling is meaningless and it's likely they'll go out before you.

But with just one person all-in, easy call.

A pocket pair will be A/A only 1 out of 5 times.

Let's say you're in a $3.40 16 player game. 4 players left. 4th pays $4.80 and 3rd pays $9.60.
Dude shoves, and you look down to see A/A. Do you call? Of course.

Let's pretend that he has one of the hands most likely to beat A/A (6/7s, 7/8s, or 8/9s with suits that don't match you). You'll win 76.83% of the time.

There's a $4.80 difference between 4th and 3rd, so on average this call will make you $3.69.

Even if this was early in the match, hours away from cashing, you can't turn down that big of an advantage. With A/A, I'm ecstatic to see one or two people go all-in. (Now, when I get several callers I get nervous because they I become less than a coin flip to survive).

So to sum it up, don't worry about making the best possible decision and having it not work out.

Fold preflop.

Really, there's nothing you can do. Just learn to shrug it off. It's going to happen again and again and again... I'll go in with all my chips holding AA to my chest(hug my laptop or something) every single time.

It's like SP said, well unless your in limit. Not much you can do about it, just remember one thing, that the next time you shove with AA you could win the pot. Do not keep thinking about it, or it will mess you up in your next game..

Nothing is guaranteed. The flop is the best predictor of winning a hand. AA is the best there is preflop and you always have the advantage preflop especially if you are headsup going into the flop. I don't like betting first in-all in with AA preflop in a tourney. I usually bet enough so that I can isolate one player, especially one with a lower stack. You are always going to call preflop with AA thought. But I have no trouble tossing AA after the flop if I get a huge raise with some quality cards showing on the flop and I don't improve. After the flop, AA is not much of a hand unimproved. It is only a pair, the best pair, but still a pair and usually you are going to be second best if others are raising.

yes it hurts to get suked out on. but think of the pot as a new car. yes he has a nice new shiny car. but he paid 4 times the sticker price.

when its down to just you and one player and you have AA...you have to call

EZ call.
You might read about someone like Phil Helmuth who'd say he'd lay the hand AA down in early levels of a big $10,000+ buyin, not wanting to risk that ~20% chance of going out, knowing he's got a high percentage chance of having double his stack by the end of the first day... but in general.. this is B.S. If you can get your chips in with the best of it.. I would almost always go for it.

The only scenarios I'd consider folding offhand.. are.... You're on the bubble of a SNG, top 3 paid, Player A has 6,400, B- 1300, C-500, and You - 5,500. Player A is Utg and shoves ALLIN, You are in SB w AA,.. I might fold this (maybe).
Another easy spot to fold in >> Satellite on or near bubble, sitting with an okay stack (99% chance of cashing), player(s) ahead go AllIn... ez fold here.

Poker Orifice said:

EZ call.
You might read about someone like Phil Helmuth who'd say he'd lay the hand AA down in early levels of a big $10,000+ buyin, not wanting to risk that ~20% chance of going out, knowing he's got a high percentage chance of having double his stack by the end of the first day... but in general.. this is B.S. If you can get your chips in with the best of it.. I would almost always go for it.

The only scenarios I'd consider folding offhand.. are.... You're on the bubble of a SNG, top 3 paid, Player A has 6,400, B- 1300, C-500, and You - 5,500. Player A is Utg and shoves ALLIN, You are in SB w AA,.. I might fold this (maybe).
Another easy spot to fold in >> Satellite on or near bubble, sitting with an okay stack (99% chance of cashing), player(s) ahead go AllIn... ez fold here.

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I agree with the above post.
Except for the above like circumstances, i would never fold pocket aces preflop no matter what...

lol, ur talking about folding aces... why? Pocket aces is best starting hand and ur thinking about fold against only 1 opponent? then what can be hand when you will call? or every time when opponent goes allin need to fold? no matter what? , if there is high stakes then yes and if you dont want to risk with too high prize then sure fold is best way, but here... no folding at all! running bad luck

I almost never fold aces preflop. Yes maybe i lose sometimes to worst hands, but in the end it will be proffitable.

I don't care if i'm in the early stages of the tournament.

The only situation in which i may fold is if there's already too many people calling the all-in. In this situation i would consider a fold because my chances of winning the hand are not so good against multiple opponents and the risk on a early stage is not worth.