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Playing Pocket Aces


Looking down at your hole cards and seeing Pocket Rockets can spark a wide range of emotions: confidence, excitement … maybe even reassurance.

One emotion that should be avoided though is that feeling of invincibility. Now, don’t get me wrong everybody loves looking at bullets before the flop but they are by no means unbeatable. Just like pretty much every other hand you are dealt in poker, there is a right and a wrong way to play them. What justifies the right way to play Aces? Well, that obviously depends on the situation.

Firstly, despite the fact that you’ve obviously got a very strong hand you need to be wary of your opponents. If you’re in early position, then you don’t want to start trying to do anything more clever than raising. Trying to trap players when you’re in early position just allows more players into the pot, making it harder to know exactly where you stand if you don’t hit trips on the flop.

Instead, define your hand early on. Make a large raise from early position with the aim of being heads up with one of your opponents on the flop. Then when the flop hits, consider your options again. If it doesn’t look dangerous, you may want to check against an aggressive player to draw another bet out of him.

If a straight or flush draw hits though, then it would be wise to get chips in to the pot to see where you stand. Trying to slowplay your hand in this situation may well just give your opponent the correct pot odds to call your raise.

Aces are without doubt a very good starting to hand to have, but players still need to have their wits around them. One of the biggest mistakes that many amateurs make is to believe that they can slow-play aces right down to the flop.

It’s true that before the flop your hand can not be beaten, but unless you improve your hand from there, you’re still left with only a pair. If you continue to slow play right down to the river, the only hands you’ll be able to beat will be an Ace High or a pair.

Therefore, it can be often be safer to adopt an all or nothing attitude. Make sure you get your chips into the pot pre-flop in order to minimise the number of opponents in the hand.

Continue to take control after the flop, but don’t be afraid to lay down what is essentially just a pair if you see a lot of action. There’s no shame in that. Afterall it’s often the hands that you don’t play that can win you a tournament.