Articles
Article:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Winning Large Pots in High Stakes No Limit Hold'em Poker with Aces
Twin Bullets. Pocket rockets. American Airlines. However you say it, pocket aces are the boss hand in poker. You can quietly enjoy the confidence that goes with knowing that, before the flop at least, you hold the nuts, the best possible hand. In a high stakes poker game, being dealt aces can mean a huge windfall or a crippling defeat. So what do you do with those aces the one time (out of every roughly 221 hands) they are dealt to you?
In a low- to middle-stakes online poker game, aces are usually played three possible ways. One, the player makes a moderate size bet pre-flop, enough to get one or two callers, ready to move all in if he is raised. Once the flop comes, unless it is extremely threatening such as a high pair on the board or three of a suit the player does not hold, he moves all in and hopes no one flopped two pair. Two, the player makes a minimum raise, hoping for multiple callers, then makes another small bet on the flop, planning to re-raise all-in the first time someone raises. Three, the player limps, hoping someone will raise. If no one does, he bets as much as he reasonably can on the flop.
The reason aces are played this way is because most players understand that while aces are the best hand before the flop, they are also among the least likely hands to improve as subsequent cards come out – that’s the standard, official poker strategy. Furthermore, if they do improve, the board is often so scary that no action can be cajoled from your savvy online poker or live casino opponents. For this reason, players with aces tend to want to try to get their entire stack in as soon as possible.
In a high stakes no limit hold’em game, where stacks can contain hundreds of poker chips worth of blinds, moving all in early is not always feasible. Risking $10,000 to win a $2,000 pot is not an appealing proposition for most high stakes players. So how do these players handle aces?
For one, they rarely slowplay before the flop. Some players will limp with aces just to mix up their play, but these players, if they are successful, are usually able to sniff out danger and get away when the flop has helped their opponent. Since most players have a lot of difficulty getting away from aces, you are much better off raising before the flop to define your hand, so that you don’t go broke to a player who has limped in with 3 5 when the flop comes A 2 4.
For another, they don’t get married to the hand. While your aces are a very attractive hand, in the end, they are just one pair. If the pot has grown to $5,000 and your opponent puts you all in for $15,000 more on a board of 9c 3s 8h 2c 6d, you need to think very seriously about giving up the hand. Your opponent has been calling you down with something, and they could easily have flopped a set of eights, nines, or any other card on the board, as well as having hit their open ended straight. They don’t know what you have, which means bluffing such a large stack is fairly unlikely, and even though the large overbet may look suspicious, that may be just what your opponent wants you to think. Trust your read, but err on the side of folding in a situation like this.
Finally, all good high stakes poker players take every hand in context. You must analyze everything you have seen previously and everything that has happened in the current hand. If you can do this successfully, you should be able to get paid off big when your aces are good, and get away with minimal scarring when they are not.
|
