Apollo Rockets
You can win a small pot in poker with a pocket pair, especially with Aces; but it’s been a long standing truth, you sure can lose big one, too. See, there’s an art to playing Aces, and one of the creative talents you have to learn to develop is how to get heads up.
Think about it statistically, if you’re one-on-one with an opponent, you’re odds regardless of what he or she has are significantly favorable than to say playing against 5 poker opponents.
Let’s say for the sake of example it’s one on one. You have AA, your opponent has QQ. Your opponent has 2 outs to better his hand over yours. But if there are five opponents in a pot and the hands look like this: AA, Ad-2d, QQ, 9-9, J-10, Well now there’s a bit more of a statistical chance that one of those hands will improve to beat a pair of aces. You’re now worrying about trip queens, trip 9s, and any straight that includes A-2 or J-10, or any diamond flush.
So, how do you go about getting a one-on-one with the trip Aces? Obviously this take a little planning ahead. First look at your position in casino games. If you’re in first or close to first position, a very large bet should make marginal hands fold. Something between 6-8 times the big blind in first position. In later position, you’ll have the advantage of see other people bet. At this point, you’re best bet is to calculate the total in the pot, and bet about 4-5 times that amount. You’ll either take pot down right then, or you’ll get one maybe two callers. And that’s a much better position to be in with the high pocket pair than with 5 callers because you were trying to be slick and slow play a monster preflop.
