Playing Pocket Aces

This hand is from a $1,000 buy-in event that I recently played at Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Early in day 1 with 30,000 effective stacks at 50-100, an unknown player limped from first position at a nine-handed table and I decided to raise to 400 with A A in second position.

I like my raise because it grows a pot and doesn’t let the remaining players limp along getting amazing implied odds. Some players elect to limp behind with A-A, hoping someone will raise so they can then three-bet and force everyone out, but that is actually one of the worst possible outcomes when you win the pot. In poker, you make money when your opponents make mistakes. If you force them to fold before the flop, even though you will win about 1,000, you miss out on the opportunity to win a large postflop pot when someone makes top pair and refuses to fold.

The lojack, button, small blind, and the initial limper all called.

Some view this as a bad situation for A-A, but it is actually fantastic, assuming you play well after the flop, because four other players are in the pot with vastly inferior hands.

The flop came 10 9 3. The small blind and the initial limper checked. I bet 1,200 into the 2,100 pot.

This bet is purely for value. I can get called by numerous worse hands, such as top pair or draws.

Only the initial limper called my 1,200 flop bet. The turn was the Q. My opponent checked and I bet 1,900 into the 4,500 pot.

At this point, I think both betting and checking are acceptable options, depending on how you expect your opponent to react. If you think he will fold all of his one-pair hands, such as A-10 and 9-7, you should strongly consider checking behind because by betting, you make your opponent fold most of his hands that are drawing thin. However, if you size your bet appropriately, most players will stick around with their marginal made hands.

Notice that my 1,900 bet into the 4,500 pot is quite different than the bet sizing many amateurs use. They instead bet large, perhaps 4,500, hoping to make their opponent fold hands that are drawing thin. If your opponent is drawing thin and he folds, that is a great result for him and a bad result for you.

My opponent called my 1,900 turn bet. The river was the 2. To my surprise, my opponent led for 2,500 into the 8,300 pot.

At this point, I am certainly not loving my hand because I lose to all of my opponent’s value betting range (flushes). However, given I have the A, that takes away many combinations of flushes he could potentially have. Also, he may raise the turn with hands like K J and Q J, which takes away a few more combinations of flushes. This leads me to believe that he may be turning a hand like 9-8 or 8-7 into a bluff. That said, some players simply never bluff in this spot. There is a bit of merit in making a large raise as a bluff (given I have the A blocker), but I don’t think many players are willing to fold a flush on the river. Given my pot odds, I only need to win 19 percent of the time to break even. I have a hard time thinking most players are bluffing in this spot, but given I only need to one in five times, calling seems like a reasonable option.

So, what would you do in this spot? Would you fold, call 2,500, raise to 6,000, or raise to 12,000?

To find out what I did, visit PokerCoaching.com/aces. ♠

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