Stop Playing Your Aces Like This

What's up guys, Nathan here, and today I want to talk about the number one mistake that I see people constantly making with their pocket aces these days, and it might be costing you money as well. This is something you absolutely have to stop doing at the poker table because it's going to kill your results, so let's jump right into it. All right, so there's actually three suboptimal strategies, I'll call them, that I see people making with pocket aces.

One, two, three, I'm going to run you through them in this video, and I'm going to give you example hands as well to to help you understand exactly what I'm talking about.

So first one is slow playing preflop with your pocket aces. Now, what do I mean by slow playing? I'm talking about just calling a raise or even worse, limping into the pot. Some of you might be asking yourself, what is a limp? A limp is when you just call the big blind. So for instance, you're playing in a $1, $2 cash game, $1, $2 of the blinds, you just call the $2, you limp into the pot. Or perhaps somebody has raised it already and you decide to just call that raise.

Why are these bad strategies? Why should you not be doing this? Well, it's really because you're just setting yourself up for disaster. You're bringing in some unnecessary trickery into your game that really just is not going to apply, apply especially for 90% of you guys probably who play low stakes games against other players who are really just playing on a sort of what we call level one basis which is just looking at the strength of their own hand.

So it only makes sense for you to raise or re-raise when you have the number one hand in all of Texas Hold'em which is pocket aces of course. So let's run you through through an example here. You have pocket aces, ace of heart, ace of spade, and a tag Titan aggressive player raises to three times the big blind. Once again, just let's pretend it's a $1, $2 cash game. So their raise three times the big blind is going to be to $6.

What should you do? You should re-raise it to 10 times the big blind. So, which in this case, $2 big blind, that's going to equal $20. And let's continue on. If he or she decides to re-raise you, what should you do? You should simply go all in. Guys, there's zero slow play in your game. What you want to be doing with Pocket Aces preflop is just making the most obvious, straightforward play possible. And like I talk about in all these videos, let them overthink the situation.

Let them think that you're bluffing or doing something crazy. Because guys, we make a lot of bluffs at the poker table. I've got tons of videos talking about bluffs that I made. I talk about bluffs in all of my poker books. And so it only makes sense that when you finally have the best hand ever made in Texas Hold'em, you want to play it the same. This is the time when you get to get paid. You get to cash in for all your bluffy plays because nobody's going to believe you have anything.

So guys, it is a massive mistake for so many reasons to limp into the pot with this hand because you end up just costing yourself incredible amounts of value because the simple fact of of the matter is if you get more money in the pot before the flop, you are going to win a much bigger pot after the flop, which we're going to talk about in a second, because it is really a snowball effect.

If you go to the flop with a $20 pot compared to a $5 pot, it allows you to make a bigger bet on the flop, and then the pot on the turn is bigger, and then you make a bigger bet on the turn and then the pot on the river is bigger and you can just go all in and get all their money.

I think you guys understand what I'm saying. Bottom line, guys, do not screw around with your aces preflop. You're making all sorts of bluffy plays. This is the time to cash them in when they're not going to believe you. You have pocket aces. Don't get tricky. Raise it up, re-raise, and so on. Let's move on to number two. All right, so number two is in the same vein, which is don't get tricky post-flop with your pocket aces.

Once again, we need to be maintaining a keep-it-simple approach after the flop as well. So let's give you an example. You know, you raise two black aces pre-flop, and once again, a tight and aggressive, one of these regular kind of opponents calls you. Flop comes down with an eight of hearts, eight of clubs, and five of spades. So what should you be doing in this situation? Well, guys, once again, I would highly recommend just making the standard play here, which is just a c-bet.

It's to bet 60% of the pot or something like that. So the pot is $20, just bet $12. You know, what I would not suggest is getting tricky. It's making a check here and hoping that this player bets and maybe you just call to be extra cagey. And guys, the bottom line is you do not need to be trying to overthink and overanalyze everything in small stakes games.

I've made a lot of videos discussing this in the past, that this is one of the number one things that hold people back, especially in small stakes games. Because once again, what you guys need to realize is that most players playing in, you know, a $1, $2 type game, they are amateurs.

They play this game as a hobby. be. So therefore, when you try to, you know, bring in your 10th level GTO, Daniel Negreanu math and advanced theories, it's just going to go whoop right over their head and they're just going to check back and you're going to go to the turn with a small pot and then you're going to try to get even more tricky and they're going to check behind again and you're going to get to the river and you make a $5 bet and they call and

you wonder why you only win a $30 pot with your pocket aces, whereas somebody like me who's going bet, bet, re-raise, shove is going to win the $400 pot. Guys, this is the difference between mediocre winners and the absolute elite winners in poker. Something that you absolutely must understand is that Pocket Aces is going to be your biggest winning hand by far. It's not even close. You can use a program like Poker Tracker. I'll have links to that in the description below.

I've used it for over 10 years as a professional, and you can literally look up your winnings with every single hand that you play. And I absolutely guarantee you, as long as you've played any amount of poker, pocket aces will be by far your biggest winning hand, and therefore it is absolutely crucial that you do not give away free expected value in a situation like this.

Absolutely have to win the maximum with this hand every single time because this hand is by far your biggest winner and therefore if you leave even 20 big blinds on the table 10 big blinds it's going to add up in a big big way over the long run towards your win rate and once again like i said guys this stuff is very serious this is the difference between all of those mediocre just just around break-even kind of players, and all of those big winners that we all dream of being.

Guys, bottom line, do not get tricky with this hand. You must win the absolute maximum in all situations. All right, let's move on to number three. So finally, this is to be prepared to fold this hand versus the knits. Now, two things here. What is a knit? Number one, that is a tight player. This is somebody I've talked about them in the videos on this channel before. four, this is the kind of player who is not screwing around.

They, you know, play very few hands. They're just in there trying to, you know, mine for the nuts, essentially. You've seen them. They're also called a rock. These are the kind of players, when they're betting big, they usually have exactly what they're representing. And point number two is, while we want to maximize our winnings with pocket aces, we also want to minimize our losses when we do not have the best hand. Hand. So let's walk you through an example here.

You raise pre-flop with the ace of diamonds, ace of spades, and a knit calls you. Flop comes down with a seven of hearts, eight of clubs, five of spades. Now I've discussed flops like this in my books, especially in my latest one, the Micro Stakes Playbook, that this is the kind of middling, dynamic kind of board that is going to smash the range of a set minor knit type player like this. And so you want to be extremely careful on boards words like this.

So you make a c-bet, continuation bet, and the knit calls you on the flop. So again, at this point, it doesn't mean that they have pocket 7s, pocket 8s, pocket 5s, but they could have a hand like pocket 6s, definitely is going to call here. And certainly we would expect pocket 9s, pocket 10s, jacks, queens to definitely call as well. I think pocket kings would have re-raised pre-flop. So let's go to the turn. Turn comes with a 10 of diamonds. You bet once again, which I do like.

I do think you should continue applying pressure, as we've talked about all throughout this video so far, not screwing around, not getting tricky. And lo and behold, the knit goes and hits the raise button. What should you be doing here, guys? Well, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad

news, but you need to be folding your hand here. Like I said, it is absolutely crucial that you get the maximum value out of your pocket aces, as we already discussed, raising or re-raising pre-flop and betting out on the flop. But it is equally as important that you minimize your losses. In a situation like this where a tight, passive player is literally screaming from the mountaintops that I have two pair or better. Guys, take it from my 10 million plus hands played online and live as well.

When a tight player like this calls you preflop, calls you on the flop, and then raises you on the turn when you bet, when you've showed incredible strength throughout the entire hand.

This player is absolutely going to show up here with two pair or better at least 90% of the time. I would, in fact, put it even higher than that. I would say at least 95% of the time. You are literally digging your own grave here by calling this player. Once again, you can use a program like Poker Tracker, which I have links to in the description below. I look at my hands like this all the time in Poker Tracker.

You can just look at the cold hard math yourself. You can filter for this exact scenario. When you have a hand like Pocket Aces and a tight player raises you on the turn and you can see all of the losses, all of the red ink in Poker Tracker for yourself, and you can finally put this to rest and you can finally just fold your hand in this spot and realize this player's never bluffing, guys. They always have it.

So anyways, guys, those are the three biggest mistakes that I consistently see people making with Pocket Aces these days. Let me know in the comments below if you make any of these mistakes. Do you believe these are mistakes? Or do you play your pocket aces a different way? Let me know your thoughts on this hand in the comments below.

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this poker podcast episode. If you want to know my complete strategy for beating small and mid stakes poker games, make sure you go grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet that's available on my website at blackrein79.com. And also make sure you hit like and subscribe here to the podcast as I'm putting out new episodes every single week to help you guys quickly get beating your poker games. I wish you guys all the best of the poker tables. I'll catch you next week.

This has been Nathan Williams with BlackRain79.com.