"Rarely slowplay aces. This is a key insight which beginners frequently violate. Slowplaying creates a smaller pot with more participants -- exactly what you don't want... You want more money in the pot, but not more players. Aces are a big favorite against a single opponent, but winning chances start to drop drastically as more players get involved." (Dan Harrington, p 232)Caro is right. I can't tell how many times I've won big from trapping with aces. When I play them more straightforwardly, the victories tend to be smaller. Why settle for an anti-climax when I'm playing the best possible hand?
"Despite common advice, you do not want to raise with aces in order to chase players out of the pot before the flop. That pair of aces usually makes as much money or more with extra opponents chasing you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't raise. But it means when you do raise, you're usually doing so hoping opponents will call, not fold. Thinning the field has its moments, but, contrary to what you've heard, raising with aces before the flop isn't one of them." (Mike Caro, p 24)
The advice to raise religiously with aces usually comes from tight-aggressives. Like Harrington, Phil Gordon reminds us -- quite rightly -- that any pocket pair, even the biggest, loses its winning potential as your number of opponents increases. In the case of aces, they win against a single opponent 86% of the time; against four opponents they win 55% of the time. You get the idea. And another tight Phil, Hellmuth, warns against limping/trapping with aces:
"Some players like to just call before the flop when holding [aces] in the hope that the move will trap someone into giving them all his chips after the flop. This is a dangerous theory with a risk-reward hazard that any expert in game theory would love to look at! Most of the time you should just go ahead and raise/reraise with [aces]... When trapping works out, you look brilliant; but when you bust yourself trapping someone, you look like an idiot." (Play Poker Like the Pros, p 140)But Doyle Brunson has never been afraid of "looking like an idiot". As a loose aggressive he loves to mix up his play, limp and trap, though usually with reraises:
"With a pair of aces in an early position before the flop I would probably limp in with them hoping that somebody would raise it behind me so I could reraise. In a middle position -- if nobody in the early seats came in -- I would play them the same way. But if somebody in the early seats did come in, I'd put in a raise with them... In a late position I'd obviously raise with them and hope that somebody trailed their hand around to me -- that is, slowplayed their hand so they could reraise me." (Brunson's Super System, p 453)Frankly I've had success limping with aces from any position. Sometimes I spring the trap (reraise) before the flop, sometimes after. It's a charm in either case. The key to not making an "idiot" of yourself is this: just get away from those blasted aces when a scary flop hits or you think someone has you beat. The problem for beginners is that they can't lay down their aces -- even when the flop doesn't improve them beyond a pair and an opponent bets big. They've waited all day for those pocket rockets and think they're by-God entitled to win. I'm able to get away from my aces if needs must.
Experience has taught me that Caro is right. Limping (or raising very small) with aces will work wonders for you in the long run, I promise. Whenever I raise with aces and win, it's usually the smaller pots -- not only have I narrowed my competition, but my opponent is aware I have a good hand. When I limp with aces and win, the pay-offs are bigger because no one suspects I have them, and more people are trapped in the pot.
6 comments:
Lost a big hand today with the pocket rockets. Flop came Q95. Felt pretty safe, thought someone paired the Q. Had two heavy bettors pre and post flop. One had AQ. Sadly, the other had 55.
Since I play for free I just let it run off me. The bad part about the game I play is that the stacks just aren't that big relative to the blinds and the raises have to be huge to get any attention, so by the time we got to the turn and river there wasn't a lot of room left for maneuvering and reading.
Oh well.
The beauty to small pocket pairs is that when they score a set the monster is so invisible. It has to be the most likely case where you'll lose a lot playing aces no matter how careful you are. It's happened to me too.
One time I did manage to lay down my aces. The flop was similar to your case -- something like K83 -- and an aggressive player just kept calling. I smelled danger, and when he finally reraised big I knew he had pocket 8s or 3s and folded.
Did you limp or raise before the flop? Since you're using play chips, I wonder if a big raise would have even driven off the player with the 5s. Back in my days on Facebook, I remember a lot of wild players who didn't take the game seriously and played any pocket pair like they had nothing to lose. If that's the case, then you were probably destined to lose whether you raised or limped.
I had made a normal size raise on the hand. Some folks on the site I play on will call almost any raise with almost anything. Usually they go out fairly soon with that strategy though.
I just survived an odd pocket AA situation. I got them in the small blind. Three limpers in the pot plus the BB. I decided not to raise. Not sure what would have happened if I had raised.
Anyhow, flop came Q J 8. I knew I didn't like it right away. I put down a smallish bet to see what I could see, but everyone called. Turn was T and people made big bets, so I jumped ship. River ended up being a 9, putting a straight on the table, won of course by the guy holding the king.
I feel oddly proud of myself for getting out of that one successfully
Good laydown! I love limping/checking when I find AA in either the small or big blind. No one remotely suspects you have them. But I certainly would have bailed in this situation too.
It is your colourful blog that brings me a lot of knowledge about living.
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