The Problem with Slow Playing AA, by Aaron Hendrix/pokerworks.com
The other night I was watching the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event final table and saw a hand take place between Scott Fischman and Ivan Demidov. I don’t remember the exact details but it basically went down like this: Demidov opened the action with pocket kings. Fischman flat called with pocket aces. Every one else folded. The flop came A-x-x all spades. Demidov did not have a spade and checked. Fischman bet his top set and Demidov folded having lost the minimum. The hand got me to thinking about why flat calling in this situation is such a bad play and I thought I’d write a quick article discussing the pros and cons of slow playing aces. As you’ll see the cons far outweigh the pros, at least in my opinion.
Advantages to slow playing aces
1) Disguises your hand – if you’re the type of player that calls a lot of raises in position, calling with aces will keep your hand well disguised and could lead to getting additional value from the pre-flop raiser post-flop.
2) Varies your play and keeps you unpredictable – not letting your opponents get a read on you is an important part of being a successful poker player. If you always raise with your big pairs and never call, you’ll become too predictable and your opponents will be able to make correct decisions based upon this.
3) Let’s you pick up additional value from hands that would fold to a pre-flop re-raise – a problem with re-raising a raise from a smart, aggressive player with pocket aces is that they will often fold and you won’t get any additional value for your hand.
Disadvantages to slow playing aces
1) You let your opponent make a good decision rather than a bad one – look at the Demidov-Fischman hand as a prime example. In that hand, Demidov was able to get away from the hand at minimal cost. If Fischman, however, had not slow played pre-flop, it’s very likely that all the chips would have gone in the middle and he would have doubled up.
2) You lose value from opponents who will likely call a pre-flop re-raise – if you make a correct raise amount, most opponents are going to call you pre-flop to see the flop. I know this seems like a simple thing to say, but any additional chips you can get is a good thing. By slow playing, you’re not giving yourself this opportunity.
3) You don’t know where you are at. A problem with slow playing is that you don’t define your opponents hand. If you re-raise you’re going to get more information. If they fold, they obviously had trash and you can note that for future reference. If they call, they more than likely have a speculative hand and you can base your post-flop decisions on that. If they re-raise, they probably have a very strong hand (and here you could make an argument for slow playing because you have gained additional value and have more information about your opponent’s hand).
What is the best course of action to take then with pocket aces? There will be times slow playing is correct (and this will be the topic of a future article), but the majority of the time you should raise. The question that must be answered then is how much to raise. That answer will always vary dependent upon the players in the pot with you, how many players are in the pot with you, their likelihood for calling a raise, and the amount they will likely call. Your raise amount should not be so large as to scare off an opponent, nor should it be so small as to invite everyone to call.
Before I wrap this up I want to go through a couple of scenarios that compares slow playing aces versus raising with them.
Scenario #1 – your opponent has raised to three times the big blind in middle position with 5-4 suited. The button flat calls with pocket 8′s. You just call with pocket aces. The flop comes Q-6-3. You lead out and are called by both players. The turn is a 7. You lead out and are raised by the pre-flop raiser. The pocket 8′s folds. You think your opponent’s range is something along the lines of A-Q or K-Q and move all in and are eliminated.
Scenario #1a – same scenario as above except this time you re-raise out of the big blind to nine times the big blind total bet. The initial pre-flop raiser folds and the button – thinking you are making a squeeze play – moves all in. You double up through his mistake.
Scenario #2 – a very aggressive player opens the pot in a short handed game with pocket kings. You flat call on the button with pocket aces. The flop comes A-x-x with three spades. Your opponent checks, you make a small 1/3 the pot bet and your opponent folds.
Scenario #2a – same scenario as above except this time you make a very small raise of just above minimum (this is the amount you think your opponent will call with a trash hand). Your opponent re-raises you. He’s capable of doing this on a move. You put in a fourth raise, this time moving all in. He quickly calls you and you double up.
Those are very generic examples (although #2 is an exact replica of the Demidov-Fischman hand) but I think you can see where there is more value to be obtained from playing aces fast. An additional benefit that I didn’t mention earlier is that it sets up potential bluffs from weaker hands. If your opponents see you play aces strong a certain way, you can do the same thing with a much lesser hand and leave your opponents guessing. This is a much better way of varying your play and making yourself unpredictable than just calling. Raise with those aces – in the long run, you’ll be glad you did.
AA is good, but Hold ‘Em is a 7 card game, by J.B. Harshaw/pokerworks.com
Too many players seem obsessed with their starting hands in Holdem. Yes A-A is a good starting hand but it is still just a starting hand. It is possible, although improbable, that the five cards on the board make a better hand, without the help of one of your aces. (Good starting hand standards are the basis for any successful poker strategy, but you still need to make a hand with the board.) In fact in some ways, that pocket pair of bullets can be a bad hand; and the more players in the pot, the “badder” it can become.
Most of the strength of Aces is really based on their chance to win the pot with little or no improvement. Once A-A falls behind, it is simply another pocket pair with just two outs, and only an 8% chance of improving on the turn and river. There is no need to lament losing with Aces; it is going to happen – often. When you go all-in with aces you are committing yourself to see all seven cards. There is nothing you can do to affect the outcome of the hand now; neither cussing nor praying works.
If you don’t believe aces are very vulnerable, spend some time in the No Fold’em Hold’em games of southern California. When I spent most of my off time in Las Vegas I remember the tales, told around the tables, of the California poker; the money, the action and the bad players. We knew they were bad, because most of our positive expectation resulted when we skinned them sitting at our table. There was gold in those hills for anyone willing to chance it. Of course, most of those who tried failed and returned with bad beat stories that even impressed the most skeptical of us.
Finally one long weekend, when I hit I-95 at Barstow, instead of turning east toward Las Vegas, I turned west toward L.A. When I entered the rather small room (10-12 tables), in Apple Valley, several things became apparent immediately:
• It was different, real different. They ate at the tables, among other things.
• There was money, lots of money and I hadn’t brought enough. A typical $2/4 Hold’em table often had $1500-2000 in chips on it. The pots could be larger than the total number of chips you might find at a table in Las Vegas.
• I knew many of the players, by name and with few exceptions, they were fish.
• This was going to be a real good weekend.
Even then I understood the value of a big stack, and my $400 would still be a small stack in the $3/6 game. I put my name on the list for $2/4, and soon had a seat. I actually walked before I was busted, but I did not even stay the night. It was brutal. The next morning I was in the office running simulations on all the computers. This game is beatable I just need to find out how. Two weeks and several million hands later, I took my second shot. I did well and armed with my new No Fold’em strategy, I did some pretty profitable prospecting in those hills.
During my visits back to California, I don’t remember ever visiting the poker room when I didn’t see two, three or even four Vegas regulars sitting at the tables. Even those I didn’t know were easy to recognize. They would be sitting at the end of the table, usually the 3 seat and have the remnants of a buy-in, stacked neatly in front of them. They were sitting there like an old stereo commercial with their unkempt hair blown back in the wind and a glassy, dazed look in their eyes. On most you could ad a thought bubble that read, “There’s all this money on the table, and I can’t get any of it.”
I also saw this scenario play out many times and it explains why those Stone Cold Rock Las Vegas locals were getting killed, in California. I saw it happen over and over again:
Our hero sits patiently waiting for a good premium hand. (His stack is dwindling 2.5 big blinds per round.) In early position he finally picks up A-A. He raises. The player immediately to his left shouts, “That’s what I’ve been waiting for. I raise.” The next player comments, “Let’s play a big pot. I cap it.” Around the table you hear the other players comment on the how big the pot will be. They all call. There are 39 small bets (The rake is approximately one small bet.) in the pot.
The flop comes with no Ace. Everything that can be out there is. If there is a flush draw or straight draw, someone has it. You can expect several pocket pairs, and one or two players usually have paired the board. It is checked to our hero/victim and he bets, to protect his aces. He is now offering 40:1 pot odds.
• Flush/Straight draws are 2:1 by the river.
• Inside Straight about 5:1 by the river
• A pair to 2 pair or trips 5:1 by the river
• Pocket pair to trips 12:1 by river
• A runner runner flush is only 23:1
Anyone that got a piece of the flop calls, everyone else folds. If there is a raise, he is drawing to a pocket pair at 23:1, but he is getting great pot odds. Usually 3 or 4 others would call a raise even if it was two bets cold. They were getting 20:1.
The turn brings no Ace. Now the bets double. Our forlorn hero/victim pushes out a big bet. Now the pot is only offering 22:1
• Flush/Straight draws are about 5:1
• Inside Straight about 11:1
• A pair to 2 pair or trips 9:1
• Pocket pair to trips 12:1 on river
• A runner runner flush is impossible. (Thankfully)
The picture should be clear now. They all call. A nine hits on the river with no flush or straight possible. One last time our hapless victim pushes out a bet. Fold. Fold. The little old lady, (Who our hero/victim has beaten many times in L.V.), in the 8 seat looks at her hand one last time and announces, “I raise.” Our lamb considers the pot odds, and calls. She rolls over 9-3 off suit for two pair and asks for a couple of racks to stack all her new chips.
In the same scenario, other hands like K-K and Q-Q brought on some even more horrible situations. The California players did believe that any Ace deserved to go to the river. When the Ace hit, pocket Kings or Queens were toast.
The California players cooperated in crushing the Las Vegas interlopers. They weren’t cheating and it wasn’t explicit collusion, but that style of game definitely worked well to destroy the bankrolls of the Vegas pretenders.
Does this mean that I didn’t like Aces? Of course not, they are still the best starting hand. but I did address them differently and I always knew they could be beaten. So next time your American Airlines gets shot down, write it off to your promotional budget and wait. Wait until next time.
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