In earlier posts I have said that when you pick up a pocket pair, and more than five players are in the hand, your pocket pair isn’t going to hold up.  So how do you play pocket aces?  Do you slow play them, or do you show your strength?

My suggestion is when checking your cards and looking at pocket aces, look at where your position is.  If you are one of the first people to play, then you might want to make a raise hoping that a bunch of people do not come in.  If you are in late position, it might be better to limp in hoping someone goes crazy with a J7 offsuit.  While getting pocket aces is a great start, lately I have been more unlucky with them than any hand I have started with.  I have been loosing with the Big Papa (aces) almost 67% of the time, and in most cases the person hits trips against me.

Folding before the flop would never happen, but after do you have the goods to fold em’?  I think almost 99% of the people would have to say “Can’t fold,” but there was once when I had aces, made a raise and had another play call me.  The flop came out 6,10,K rainbow.  Before the flop came out the person really hesitated making the call.  When the flop came out, they raised fairly quickly.  In most cases I would think the person is bluffing, but in this case my gut said they hit the 6 only because the King didn’t scare her at all.  Trips over trips really doesn’t happen much, so the odds that I had pocket kings was probably less than 1%.   I really wanted to play, and asked if the person would show me their cards if I folded.  I threw in my two aces, and they turned over pocket 6’s for trips.

Last nights Wednesday night game had a lot of big pots, something that I really do not prefer to play against.  In one hand, my dad raised, and 4 other people either raised or called before the flop.  In this case two people went all in with more than 400 chips per person, making the pot close to 2000 chips before seeing a card.  I thought that either Dad had aces and everyone else had good starting hands.  If their is a re-raise in a pot before the flop, I most likely will fold almost anything thinking that the person is holding the nuts.  If it isn’t a huge re-raise and I have AK, Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, and Tens, then it’s getting mucked.  Sometimes a person is making a play at the flop, but more than likely you better have it or else your drawing dead.  Back to the hand, the flop came out 9,4,4.  First player checked and Dad pushed all in.  At this point in time there was only three hands he could have and one could be ruled out instantly, with that being pocket 4’s.  Either Dad had Aces or 9’s, and the 9’s would be a wild call and the flop really hit him.  All in all, 5 players were all in, most really didn’t have anything serious in chips and had good hands.  Dad turned over pocket 9’s and 4 people busted out.  The hands were A10 off, J10 suitted, AQ off, and 105 off which wasn’t shown to everyone.  Dad raked in over 2k in chips on a hand that quite honestly probably should have been folded with the crazyiness before the flop. But what do I know….

On a side note…..Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and allow people to bluff you.  Don’t take it personal, and don’t get upset.  The DONKEY play of the night happen during two hands.  The first hand, Junior showed top two pair and busted out Jane. She went all in with middle pair which drives me crazy.  She re-bought in and was dealt in afterwards.  Junior made a raise into the next pot of 80 and the two were back at it.  The flop came out J,10,9 rainbow.  Jane raised to 150, and Junior came over the top for 200 more for 350 total.  Jane quickly made the all in call and showed J7 offsuit, while Junior had AJ suitted.  Juniors hand stood up and he took her out for the second time.  Looking back at this hand, Jane never should have been in the pot. J7 offsuit limp in I don’t mind, but when Junior made the healthy raise, the lights should have turned on.  In this case, Jane was upset about the hand before, and was either hoping to bluff him out, or just playing luck.  If your trying to bluff him out, she should have come over the top pre-flop making it look like she had aces or kings instead of calling his hand.  When she bet the 150, and he re-raised her, another light should have come on showing her he either had a big pair, or AJ.  I don’t like the J7 call or play because she was on tilt from the hand before where she donkey’d her chips with middle pair.  Sometimes you just have to let em’ bluff and beat you, because their confidence goes up, but I am NEVER writing about that, because that’s my hidden secret.

Hoping you look down at aces, and they hold up,
sc

The Wednesday game has come full circle.  I remember the days when people would constantly bluff.  Now people are playing super tight and playing much better starting hands.  Well some are anyways. :)  However, I believe poker comes down to several things, but most importantly patience.  If you are not picking up good starting hands, and you are limping into the pot hoping to get lucky and to play, you are making a costly mistake.

Last nights game should have been lights out within 2 hours of play.  I often wonder when I am going to have the cards go my way, and instead of outplaying people before and after the flop, that I will look down at huge pocket pairs and win big pots.  With the blinds at 10-20, I looked down at Aces and put in a raise to 80.  The player next to me, checked his cards and re-raised me to 180.  When it came back to me I felt like I only had one play and that was to go all in and show my strength.  In most cases when I raise with a big hand and someone comes over the top of me, I figure that they must have kings or aces.  If I have AK and they re-raise me, I usually figure the player has queens or jacks, but I don’t like the re-raise play.  If the person is pot committed, they have to call with AK, because the odds are against the other player having aces or kings, so you still have outs.  The other player said “call” and flipped over Jacks.  I had the other player covered by 125 chips, and one of two jacks in the deck came out.  This exact play happened 5 times last night, with either Kings or aces, and I doubled 5 people up and still had a tiny stack afterwards.

Last night I picked up aces 3 times, loosing twice with the one win in a limp pot of three and the board coming out with a straight.  I picked up Kings 4 times, loosing 3 times, one being a re-raise all in to 105 chips and the player not looking at his hole cards.  I noticed the player didn’t check his cards, and with re-raise only 25 more chips, I had to call and thought I still had the best hand.  The player turned over 9-10hearts and hit two pair on the river. (another double up)

In most cases playing patience allows you to get through those bad parts of your tournament.  If you are not picking up quality hands, lock it down.  Play smart poker instead of limping in with terrible hands.  But be knowledgable that if someone sees that you are not defending your blind, that people will take advantage of you.  With an early chip lead, two players last night locked it down just a little to early.  I might have been the only person to notice this, and they were both in the blind at the same time with four people left.  Each time I would wait to watch them check their cards, then I would check mine  and put in a raise of 4 times the big blind.  In most cases, (exactly 12 times) I stole the small and big blind from these two players, and then when I caught a hand and made a raise, they would fold.  In essence the players folded their way out of the win.  With three players left I was the middle man, and with both wanting to make the money, I continued with my stealing.  If they would put in a raise or stay with me, then I knew I was beat.  Nate, who pulled off the first of many suck outs on me last night, was eventually blinded out.  And Billy, who had the chip lead really wanted to win.  Roughly 15 minutes into heads up, I took down another win with AQclubs, where I limped in, against his all in with A3diamonds.  As it would stand, I hit a flush on the flop.  I was happy to see Billy win second place, and we had agreed to split it when we went heads up.  It was by far the best I have seen Billy play, because he layed down top pair 3-4 times last night after the flop against several people including me…..and for the record I said I had two pairs and didn’t hit anything….:)  I was on a flush draw, sorry!!!

Hoping you look down at aces, and THEY HOLD UP!!!!!
sc