Heads Up With Aaron Jones

Aaron Jones is a high-stakes cash-game player with remarkable success online under the screen name “Aejones.” He also has around $300,000 in live-tournament cashes. He recently sat down with Card Player TV to discuss one of the most common excuses for playing a weak starting hand: “But it was suited!”

Julio Rodriguez: One of the big justifications in poker is, “But it was suited!” Obviously, these players get ridiculed when they throw up that defense, but is there any merit to it?
Aaron Jones: Well, of course there is some merit to it. You said “justifications,” which is a perfect choice of words, because as poker players get better and worse, they constantly use justifications. They heard someone say it on TV, or they read it in a magazine, or they found some equity calculation that proves this or that. So, players are constantly using justifications, and being suited is a great justification for doing something ridiculous. Of course, it adds that extra 3 percent or 5 percent equity, but mostly, when people are talking about a hand being suited or not, they are talking about whether or not a hand plays well multiway. For instance, a suited ace is a great hand to play multiway with a deep pot-to-stack ratio; it’s a really good hand with which to try to beat a queen-high flush. It sounds very simple, and it kind of is. Small suited connectors, hands that make straights and flushes, are also really good to play multiway. As you get deeper into a tournament, when stacks are about 15 to 25 big blinds and situations are push-bot and resteal, these hands lose their value. ♠