M
Mike D_
Rock Star
Silver Level
So I have pocket aces in UTG in a tournament, personally I want to shove with this hand preflop but I found that many times my pocket aces were cracked, sometimes by opponents hitting trips and sometimes because there are too many people in the pot with all kind of hands. I found an optimal strategy imho to play this hand in this position: I limp then I wait a guy from middle position to raise then a reraise from late positions is like a perfect scenario. Now let's imagine what kind of hands can have guys from middle and late positions: I know I limped with aces and there are 2 aces left, guy from middle position can have an ace (maybe 10+ maybe not, maybe suited maybe not) but what means a reraise from a guy in late position? He is definitively on a big pair something like TT+ or even QQ+. Now it's my time to react and here I shove 100%, (guy from middle position have very low chances if he is on A10+, because he have many blockers to hit an ace, to hit a straight with 3rd guy on QQ so he basically can win only when he hits a flush or a set of not aces ). In this spot, the 3rd guy with QQ is the real danger but we are ahead, if he misses his set we win his chips and chips from the guy in the middle (no matter guy from middle position shoved or folded after ur shove - there are more chips in the pot than just shoving into QQ).
There is another situations where u can be unlucky and only u can have a pair with no raises and reraises. In this case I'm just looking to hit a set on the flop, otherwise I fold to any hard bets postflop...
Oh yes and the last thing, by limping in utg i can control the number of ppl interested in the pot if there are 4 including me and I have a feeling that nobody will fold I can even consider to fold aces preflop.
There is another situations where u can be unlucky and only u can have a pair with no raises and reraises. In this case I'm just looking to hit a set on the flop, otherwise I fold to any hard bets postflop...
Oh yes and the last thing, by limping in utg i can control the number of ppl interested in the pot if there are 4 including me and I have a feeling that nobody will fold I can even consider to fold aces preflop.