Pocket Aces on the bubble

[Chief talking bull]

The other night I was playing in a tournament and all I can say is thank God it was only a $10 prize pool freeroll on ACR. I was either the shortest stack or next to the shortest stack when I picked up pocket aces on the bubble. I had been folding hand after hand giving up more than half the chips I had to get to that point. I was first to move all in with about 18,000 chips. I had only one caller who was holding pocket kings and sure enough he flopped a set on me and sent me packing. Then I complained to my wife about it and she said "Well, you know you shouldn't have played a hand on the bubble if there was a chance you were going to get knocked out." I'm sorry, I just don't know how to fold that hand in that spot. What would you do there. Would you keep folding and hope someone else slips up or would you go for it and try to win the tournament? What if there was a big buy in and you wanted to walk away with something?

 

[gon4iypes]

me too, I would shove. the set of king was just variance....apart from that, most likely they would all have folded anyway because it was the bubble. better luck next time

 

[pancho_1954]

I have always thought that many times if they give you hands like AA KK QQ right near the bubble it is for you to lose and more if you are one of the most suffering with the chips, I have been through that situation many times, I have never stopped play them, sometimes those cards serve and others do not

 

[formertroll]

if you are playing for the win (and in the 10.00 tournaments if you are competing for the 55.00 tickets you need to play for the win) you should be playing the aces all day. if you're in a normal tournament with no huge prizes at stakes, fold down and accept the min cash

 

[mariale_1990]

I play them in bubble or not, but always with the fear of failing, it is not easy to play at that time of the tournament, but it is a risk that I think should be taken

 

[Edison A]

The decision should be made according to the size of your stack

 

[Eric Salvador]

If you're just playing to cash sure fold. I'm going to play that hand short stacked no matter that situations. If you're folding that hand then what hands are your playing. You made that right bet

 

[Nathan Smith]

The other night I was playing in a tournament and all I can say is thank God it was only a $10 prize pool freeroll on ACR. I was either the shortest stack or next to the shortest stack when I picked up pocket aces on the bubble. I had been folding hand after hand giving up more than half the chips I had to get to that point. I was first to move all in with about 18,000 chips. I had only one caller who was holding pocket kings and sure enough he flopped a set on me and sent me packing. Then I complained to my wife about it and she said "Well, you know you shouldn't have played a hand on the bubble if there was a chance you were going to get knocked out." I'm sorry, I just don't know how to fold that hand in that spot. What would you do there. Would you keep folding and hope someone else slips up or would you go for it and try to win the tournament? What if there was a big buy in and you wanted to walk away with something?

Always play for the win. You can play a bit tighter on the bubble if you are mid-stacked by never fold aces - you double up most of the time and you need more chips to win the thing - where most of the money is.

 

[acemenow]

It depends on your goal. Are you trying to get to ITM or win it?

If ITM folding PPA might be prudent but is no guarantee you will get ITM.
Ultimately though your chip stack should determine how viable your shot at ITM.

Usually I would shove that Pair and not think twice about it if I lost especially micro stakes.

But the one constant of poker for me at least is that its not fair! Consequently, it makes more sense to me to play the odds.

 

[discintildeath]

Definitely just bad luck

This situation is just bad luck if you are in it 20 times you will win 16/20 in the long run you will make up for those losses and hopefully it will be in a tourney that has a huge payout and the unlucky guy with kings vs aces wont get the benefit of luck...

 

[Tony Vayer]

Sometimes you have to sacrifice something good in order to achieve a better result.

 

[hugh blair]

The other night I was playing in a tournament and all I can say is thank God it was only a $10 prize pool freeroll on ACR. I was either the shortest stack or next to the shortest stack when I picked up pocket aces on the bubble. I had been folding hand after hand giving up more than half the chips I had to get to that point. I was first to move all in with about 18,000 chips. I had only one caller who was holding pocket kings and sure enough he flopped a set on me and sent me packing. Then I complained to my wife about it and she said "Well, you know you shouldn't have played a hand on the bubble if there was a chance you were going to get knocked out." I'm sorry, I just don't know how to fold that hand in that spot. What would you do there. Would you keep folding and hope someone else slips up or would you go for it and try to win the tournament? What if there was a big buy in and you wanted to walk away with something?

Really catchy username like it:five:very unlucky sometimes no escaping destiny good luck in your next games:top:

 

[ammje]

To me has also happened to me several times, I think everything depends on the tournament, being a free tournament, I think I never would fold with pocket AA bubble, because to get into good prizes have to get as far as possible, if it was a tournament buy in high, if you would.

 

[Edson]

You have only one good decision here. Shove
You can fold AA in this kind of situation only if You play sat, and You have 100% Chance that You win a ticket without play any hand to the end, or on the buble if You playing tournament with a big prizes which is a big amount of Your bankroll (You have $500 in bankroll and min cash will give You $200)

 

[ninjareal]

Hi all, others have said quite a lot of good points, so I'm just gonna give my take on it,
If wsop 10k, and you're at least 15players away from the smallest stack, then fold, if you're in the bottom 10 then shove, however at our small stakes $10 demand, then play to win, winning is time better spent $2,50 for 4hrs play vs $0,50 for 3,5 hrs play,
Just my take

 

[seeyouthru]

doesnt matter Cash Or deep on tourney or early in tourney.
AA are never to be folded.
sometimes you will crack somebodys AA.
Just Like i did today on stone cold bubble 19 players remaining and 1 away from money.
i was 120 BB deep i open shoved 66 from Button and BB 65 bigs deep called with AA.
i Flopped A Set!

 

[Dzob]

Play all-in and close your eyes. In a moment, open your eyes and take a deep breath if you won or punch your desk and say aloud what you mean if you lost

 

[vokrugdookola]

if you are playing for the win (and in the 10.00 tournaments if you are competing for the 55.00 tickets you need to play for the win) you should be playing the aces all day. if you're in a normal tournament with no huge prizes at stakes, fold down and accept the min cash

I completely agree

 

[Sprockett]

I think the mistake you made was to let your stack decrease to half of what you had. If you play normally there is a chance your stack would be big enough to survive a suckout. I think this is a classic example of a mindset that increase your itm, but hurt your roi.

In turnys I think it is imortant to always try to build your stack as you can not expect your god hands to hold through a long turny.

To sum it up a bit you should not fold aces in this spot.


My 2 cents

 

[dragunovich]

I think that you should never fold that hand, the question is when to do the all-in. preflop, postflop, etc .. if you think you can do some call well, all-in preflop is good movement although it would not be bad on the flop. If you lose with that hand, you should be "calmdown" because it was luck that hurt you and not your moves.

 

[MikeCarasone]

Obviously there’s no way you are trailing preflop with AA. That being said We all know AA is not invincible. I am shoving there every time. If I lose so be it. In order to win a tournament you must chip up. There is no better hand to get chips with. Unfortunately you were unlucky. Most times you would win that pot.

 

[Pickat]

I will play them every time no matter the situation . And with the villain having KK there is no way all the chips weren't going preflop . Just bad luck . Better luck next time . Odds say you will win most of those situations .

 

[uriell]

I'll tell you if you do not know how to play with a pair of aces on a bubble or not. Maybe then do not play poker.

 

[Luvepoker]

I will never fold pocket aces on the money bubble of a tournament. While making it to the money is always nice, the min cash is never what your should be thinking of here. When you have pocket aces you should be thinking about how much value there is that you can get from the hand as the big money is at the top.

This being said I could fold aces pre-flop under very rare circumstances. If this was a satellite event or one of those event that everyone who makes the money gets the same price I could see the value of folding as long as you have the chips to make it into the money or enough to win the seat. I have done it once as I was the 2nd biggest stack and the 3rd biggest one shoved in front of me. If I had called and lost I would have been down to 1 BB or so and there were several others with less than 3 BB so the risk "40or so BB" was not worth the award.