Everybody wants to play pocket Aces. It is fun to look up and see A-A in you hand. However, playing pocket Aces in online No Limit Texas Hold’em can be tricky. I think many times everyone wants to have this hand but they have given very little thought to how to play it once it is dealt to you.
Here is the basic dilemma with pocket Aces, especially as it relates to online NL Texas Hold’em: so many player limp into hands and play virtually any two cards.
What is wrong with that? You have them beat with the best hand, right? Obviously, yes, PRE FLOP. The problem is, the more players in the hand, the more chance that someone will suck-out on you and bust you out with you pocket Aces.
I see it all the time. A player in middle position limps in. He is called by the button and both blinds. The flop comes 6-6-J. A raise, re-raise battle ensues, and pocket Aces are busted out by the player in the Small blind who limped into the hand with Q-6 suited. This, or a hand similar to it, happens more often than you would think during internet play, just because you tend to get so many players in the hand. The combination of cards they can hit is that much greater.
Seems simple, then. Just raise to push out all the limpers. I have seen many players just push all-in pre-flop when they hit a big hand like A-A. The problem with that is, if you have $3k in chips early on in a Sit n Go, when the blinds are $50-$25, if you push all in you are likely to collect $75 in chips when everyone else folds. Lets say that you don’t make an idiot bet of all-in, but you raise 3x-4x the Big Blind, you will still find that quite often everyone else at the table will fold and you will just end up with the blinds. This is because novice players love to limp and see every flop, but calling raises generally makes them nervous.
The idea here is that you have to maximize these big hands when you have them, but you can’t be stupid about it and encourage too much action by just limping in. So, what do you do? Can’t raise! Can’t limp.
For me, the answer is usually somewhere in the middle. I believe that you must make a pre-flop raise with you bigger hands to try and weed out the people who have no business in the hand at all. Those are generally the players that will hurt you. You want to try and weed it out to one or two other players in the hand.
If I will most times make a 3x Big Blind raise to open a pot, then I make it only 2x with A-A. Not a lot of difference, perhaps, but it can help get a call or two. The only time I will limp with a big hand is if I have identified a player who is too aggressive. If I think that player will re-raise limpers, then I will try to trap him into doing so with my big hands. Which really brings me to the point of how to play these hands. You need to pay attention to the other players at the table and how they have reacted to various plays previously.
What do I mean by that? Well, if you have seen someone play every hand, then I will make my raise fit something that I know he will call based on his previous plays. I love to find someone who will try and make a big raise if people limp in to try and push them off the pot and steal it. If there is someone like that at the table, then you can many times re-raise them a large amount or even all in, because their aggression will land them in tight places and they cannot give up the hand after making a big raise.
If I see a player who loves to play position, then I will make my bet to try and encourage him to call or raise from the button. Most online players are not very sophisticated. If you can get them to raise when you have a big hand, you can usually re-raise all-in and they will not be able to give it up.
Really, it all comes down to how well you have paid attention to the previous action at your table. If you have correctly identified the tendencies of 1 or 2 players, then you can turn your monster hand into a big pay off. If not, then you are just shooting in the dark and hoping for the best. Remember, monster hands can turn into nightmare hands if played incorrectly, especially in online Texas Hold’em.
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