How to get the most out of KA, AA

Hi, I’m fairly new to poker I been playing for awhile but just for fun only recently starting to take it seriously. My question is how to get the best value out of hands like AA, KA. They come by rarely and when I go all in 9/10 times everyone folds. How do the more experienced players go about playing these hands I’m afraid to check or low raise as someone with smaller cards will decide to play and end up winning with pair of 4’s I’m new to the game so bare with me, thanks in advance

To get the maximum benefit from AA, KK, DD, etc. you need to take risks and always go VABank otherwise they just burn and they can move when opening cards, it often happens, 23,78,64, pairs will kill it just happens

If you are playing cash tables, it is advisable to open them 3bb from any position except SB, in the almost equal tournaments, but in the advanced stages (less than 50bb of the average) it is advisable to open them x2 and wait for the re-raise/all in.

And if you just call, play the board, depending on the board measure your bets.

Thanks for the advance guys I mostly play tournaments at the moment

By me is it best to play 4 bet or going all in pre flop because it easy for others to hit 2 pair with small cards witch is most common and hook you up in the rest of the hand. So if you want them to pay YOU for that "2pairs" make them pay instead of viewing a flop for free.. good luck

Noodles said:

Hi, I’m fairly new to poker I been playing for awhile but just for fun only recently starting to take it seriously. My question is how to get the best value out of hands like AA, KA. They come by rarely and when I go all in 9/10 times everyone folds. How do the more experienced players go about playing these hands I’m afraid to check or low raise as someone with smaller cards will decide to play and end up winning with pair of 4’s I’m new to the game so bare with me, thanks in advance

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Being new to the game one mistake you can make it thinking youre going to win a hand based on your whole cards. Yes AA is the best hand you can get dealt and when you go all in with it preflop and everyone folds, it can make you feel like you didnt get the most out of it. Holding AA gives you a feeling of invincibility but AA gets beat more often than you think. I dont mind making a bigger than average raise preflop. This is my advice always because it eliminates hands that are more likely to draw out against and keeps in the bigger hands like AK that you are more likely to beat. It is much more difficult to throw away a pocket pair preflop than suited connectors and other pairs are more likely to call big raises. Stay with the large preflop raise with AA, it gives you better chance to win big pots and less chance to get drawn out on.

AK is a nice looking hand preflop and very reraisable all in preflop to an opening bet. You are almost always at least a coin flip against all other hands, except for KK or AA of course. However during a grinding tournament you dont want to get your stack in on a flip. Position is important with AK. Always raise preflop with AK. Unless you are small blind and everyone folds to the blinds, this is a good chance to trap. AK may be the most difficult hand to play after the flop if you miss. Dont be afraid to fold it if it misses and your opponent shows aggression.

ty taylor said:

Being new to the game one mistake you can make it thinking youre going to win a hand based on your whole cards. Yes AA is the best hand you can get dealt and when you go all in with it preflop and everyone folds, it can make you feel like you didnt get the most out of it. Holding AA gives you a feeling of invincibility but AA gets beat more often than you think. I dont mind making a bigger than average raise preflop. This is my advice always because it eliminates hands that are more likely to draw out against and keeps in the bigger hands like AK that you are more likely to beat. It is much more difficult to throw away a pocket pair preflop than suited connectors and other pairs are more likely to call big raises. Stay with the large preflop raise with AA, it gives you better chance to win big pots and less chance to get drawn out on.

AK is a nice looking hand preflop and very reraisable all in preflop to an opening bet. You are almost always at least a coin flip against all other hands, except for KK or AA of course. However during a grinding tournament you dont want to get your stack in on a flip. Position is important with AK. Always raise preflop with AK. Unless you are small blind and everyone folds to the blinds, this is a good chance to trap. AK may be the most difficult hand to play after the flop if you miss. Dont be afraid to fold it if it misses and your opponent shows aggression.

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Thanks Taylor that’s great advice I’ll take that on board

Noodles said:

Hi, I’m fairly new to poker I been playing for awhile but just for fun only recently starting to take it seriously. My question is how to get the best value out of hands like AA, KA. They come by rarely and when I go all in 9/10 times everyone folds. How do the more experienced players go about playing these hands I’m afraid to check or low raise as someone with smaller cards will decide to play and end up winning with pair of 4’s I’m new to the game so bare with me, thanks in advance

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It is necessary to study poker mathematics and then it will be easier.
Simply put-if you get AA - it does not mean that you will win the hand. In 1 of 5 times you will win any other cards. What's the meaning of that? This means you need to raise the bet on preflop such that would be for 4 times to recoup the 5th loss.

Even easier-never let your opponents look at the cards on the table for free, because they can catch their monster.

If you are a beginner there're lots of things you have to learn. Firstly, try to read some poker books, articles, and watch videos for newbie poker players. After the time you could say you got at least the poker basics right, try to play on the tables.

With AA, it's never ever a mistake to go all-in preflop. Yes, sometimes you can get burned by someone holding other hand, but AA is the most powerful hand in poker, and you will win with it most of time. Your only mistake is making open-push with it. Everyone else can clealy see now that you got AA. And it's not a good thing, trust me. Poker is a game of fooling your opponents, not a game of saying "hey guyz I got AA c'mon pay me". Make standard raise (most of time it's about 3 big blinds) and wait for some action. You need to get value from your hand and decrease the number of players you are going to play postflop with. Play postflop with your aces if you have to. Postflop game is another story, it's more complicated than preflop game. After some time, you probly will figure out how to play postflop properly. If someone re-raises you preflop, always try to raise more. As I said above, it's never a mistake just to go all-in with aces, and you should do it if your opponent(-s) doesn't mind going all-in as well.
And a few words about badbeats. poker game is full of badbeats. Remember that's poker and crap happens. If someone wins with a hand like 54o when you get aces, then well I know the feeling, it sucks. But depending on math the strongest poker hand wins most of time. For example, KK vs. AA have only ≈17% to be a winner preflop. This means you win 83 out of 100 times when it happens. Not 100%! If you lose with aces, that's just poker, no hand has 100% chance to win. Just keep grinding, another time you'll make it.

You should not play with fear, hands like AA or AK, it is true that sometimes lose, but most of the time you will win with these hands, and if you do open raise X5, for example, this type of hands, you will get all the villains to fold, and you'd be losing value.

As a relatively new player myself and currently only in micro games and tourney's, I've found that x3 is good for AA. Min raising x2 can help induce action in some spots but usually you'll just get a lot of calls (and not enough info). Sometimes x2 bets from CO or Button can induce the blinds to 3bet you.


Limping leads to regrets. I think you need more info. and more $ than you can get from limping.
The x4+ raises can work out but I just find not as often as 3x (at least, at the stakes I play).

Sometimes I x4 if opening on button or CO. It depends who is in blinds. I think this is mainly when I'm annoyed at all the folds and taking it out on them

I also rarely just call a re-raise preflop. When someone gets pushy with my AA pre flop I will continue to re-raise until they (or I have to) go all-in. I find some joy watching them dig so hard for my AA with their JJ, QQ, KK, AK...(I find some humility when they flop their sets/straights....)

This is just from my experience as a new fish and I'm still learning. Aggression control is what I'm working on lately.

AA is one of the most easy hands for pre flop strategy:
1 the main goal is to see the flop with 1 opponent
2 commonly a second goal is to have the highest preflop pot possible

sub1:
As you mention that everyone folds, you should not go all-in. Observe and find the 'sweet spot' where you'll end up with 1 opponent.
I've seen MMT's where many people play very tight, the only way to get to a flop is to limp with AA and take it from there.
Also if you have been folding the last 30 hands, you will be seen as very tight, so any raise by you is interpreted as 'AA'.

This might depend on your position at the table. And if you're playing a lot of freerolls, these are perfect hands to call the shovers with. But if you're opening the bet, I tend to either call the BB or two-bet at most so I can try to pull in the most money from the table.

The most common bet with these hands is no less than 4 BB. On the flop, you have to bet again, but already more than the previous one and check or force your opponent to throw a card. Even if you do not have a pair on the flop to AK. This is if your stack is medium or large.With a small stack, it is better to make an allin.

it depends on the position of the type of tournaments of your reputation on the table ect ... for my part or I bet 3 preflop or it is all in if someone has to relaunch.i rarely takes a risk with this hand.

In general you should raise 3x or 4x preflop and play them aggressively

AK is a very over played hand. It is always to be raised pre flop for value but not 3 bet as you dont want to squeeze out the weaker ace or king that you will take entire stack from post flop. Aces are a hand you ALWAYS ALWAYS want to provoke all in pre flop. Dont slow play them.

Premium Hands pre-flop

To get the most benefit from premium hands such as AK, AQ KK, AA, you must play without fear and take your risks ... to which I refer, if you are in an early position you should consider raising strongly or all-in, If you are on the button, reraising is better than just calling.
But definitely take your risks with strong hands and do not let the opponent take advantage of the cards he has

Two options here:


1. If you are the first betting, I thing x3 or x4 raise is ok, the best here is that someone raise the bet, so re raise, you can go all in here if you want, two scenarios, villain pay the bet or fold and you get some chips


2. If someone make a bet before, raise that bet x3 or x4

Souza322 said:

Two options here:


1. If you are the first betting, I thing x3 or x4 raise is ok, the best here is that someone raise the bet, so re raise, you can go all in here if you want, two scenarios, villain pay the bet or fold and you get some chips


2. If someone make a bet before, raise that bet x3 or x4

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Yep, and if there're other callers so you need to squeeze with these hands then make it even more, especially out of position.

ty taylor said:

Being new to the game one mistake you can make it thinking youre going to win a hand based on your whole cards. Yes AA is the best hand you can get dealt and when you go all in with it preflop and everyone folds, it can make you feel like you didnt get the most out of it. Holding AA gives you a feeling of invincibility but AA gets beat more often than you think. I dont mind making a bigger than average raise preflop. This is my advice always because it eliminates hands that are more likely to draw out against and keeps in the bigger hands like AK that you are more likely to beat. It is much more difficult to throw away a pocket pair preflop than suited connectors and other pairs are more likely to call big raises. Stay with the large preflop raise with AA, it gives you better chance to win big pots and less chance to get drawn out on.

AK is a nice looking hand preflop and very reraisable all in preflop to an opening bet. You are almost always at least a coin flip against all other hands, except for KK or AA of course. However during a grinding tournament you dont want to get your stack in on a flip. Position is important with AK. Always raise preflop with AK. Unless you are small blind and everyone folds to the blinds, this is a good chance to trap. AK may be the most difficult hand to play after the flop if you miss. Dont be afraid to fold it if it misses and your opponent shows aggression.

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All good points. Also, playing other cards aggressively, occasionally, and showing them, even on quick folds if you don't hit the flop (or better yet, after hitting, can create openings for when you do want to shove with strong cards.

Great points, but I don’t think you should ever show cards when your in competive competition.
I believe you should slow play AA, once in a while. These days players think no one slow plays them so when you big bet, they want to fold. Trapping works

AA and AK

my opinion about AA and AK is to play VERY AGRESIVE , so if i loose .....this will be
from a good hand and not by small cards'

My strategy with AA and AK and the high high premium hands are the same for most cases. Raise a balanced size, and just pump it every time someone reraises you. With a few exceptions of course, I'd fold AK & QQ to cold 5bet should that ever happen.

On occasion, you will see me limp my very strong hands, but I pick my spots very carefully. For example, if I like to limp my nutted hands in early position if there are a lot of aggressive people at my table, if there are a lot of re shoving stacks <15 BB, and especcially in bounty tournaments when there is a very clear shortstack. I find people don't usually believe you when you backraise and will usually just go all in against you with their AJo so it does provide the opportunity for winning a big pot.

Most of the time you just wanna bet big and play aggressively.

for me it is so possible to go to an all-in with only two aces, 3 bets only from 10 to the kings, and everything else, depending on the situation, should be cheaper to see the flop.