Playing Pocket Rockets

[Insidestr8]

This topic was discussed at a table that I was at yesterday so I would like to talk about it a bit. Pocket Aces do lose on occasion. In fact Pocket Aces, against a suited connector like 6-7 are only a 76% favorite to win. That means that the 6-7 will win slightly more than once every five times this situation occurs. That’s just a fact, its not a TP thing.

Crazy bad beats happen. That’s not a TP thing. Below are three situations from yesterday at the WSOP in Las Vegas. The first two are both suckouts where pocket aces lost to flushes. The last example is where pocket kings ran into two, pocket rockets on the same hand. Thank goodness this happened in the biggest poker tournament in the world because if it had happened on TP the only explanation could be the standard whine of “TP set up”.

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Croffut's Aces Get Cracked... By Aces
Adam Croffut raised to 44,000 after Tommy Vedes limped in from early position. Michael Casella called out of the small blind and then Vedes reraised to 253,000. Croffut then raised all in. Casella folded and Vedes made the call instantly. The showdown was almost expected, Ah Ad for Vedes and As Ac for Croffut. The flop came down Kd Qh 6d and there was now a chance that Vedes could go runner, runner for the diamond flush. The turn brought the Jd, making the flush more of a real possibility for Vedes. The river was the .

Lauria Moving Up
Bob Lauria was all in before the flop for about 170,000. He held Ac Kc and he ran smack into the Ad Ah of Kara Scott. Not to worry, Mr. Lauria. The board ran down Qc 10d 9c 4c Jc, giving him the winning ace-high flush.

Lou Diamond Phillips Eliminated
On the last hand of the night, Lou Diamond Phillips was all in before the flop with pocket kings against two player - both with pocket aces. The board couldn't bring any help for Phillips, eliminating him from the tournament and the two players holding aces split the pot.

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I am sorry that the above is a rant but it ties into my thoughts on playing pocket rockets and for that matter on playing at TP. I don’t think that many people consider me to be a “chaser” and I do ok at PBL, so I do not rely on the miracle catch to win. I am not psyched out by TP and I try to play my cards the way they should be played. Just because I have seen and experienced Aces being cracked, I do not toss them in the scrap heap and go all in pre-flop just to pick up two blinds. To me, that type of play defies logic and only makes a bit of sense in a “rigged” game. Personally, if I thought a game was rigged I wouldn’t play it. These comments are not meant as a knock to the gentleman at my table yesterdaythat I greatly respect, but just how view the playing of this hand.

Pocket Aces are obviously the best hand you can be dealt. When I play poker I try to eliminate emotion and superstition from my game. I don’t like losing with pocket aces, but I know that losing with pocket aces is no worse then losing with any other two cards. What I think is stupid is expecting pocket aces to win all the time and people slow playing aces to the river. That is a recipe for disaster and you are just begging for a bad beat. In fact AA, against four junkie hands of 7/6 suited, 10/8 unsuited, Q/J unsuited and pocket 4s, is only a favorite to win 44% of the time. That means that against these average hands the rockets will loose over half the time if the hand is slow played to the river. Again, those are just the odds, not a TP thing.

My theory on pocket aces is pretty simple. I never ever want more than two other people in the hand with me when I hold rockets. Depending on who is at the table and what their stacks are, my pre-flop raise will be aimed at getting one or two callers. The only time I will not raise with pocket rockets is if I’m playing heads up or maybe late in the tournament when it’s three handed. At that point I’m already down to the amount of people that I want in the hand so I might try a trap play by limping, though at that point of a tournament the blinds are big enough that I will likely make a raise anyway.

From that point on the flop becomes key. If the flop is one that results in a flush draw or likely a straight draw, then I want to end the hand right there. At this point I’ll likely do the big raise and try to take the hand down right there. If my pre-flop raise was 3 times the blind and I had two callers, that means I am taking down 6 blinds with this strategy. If I had gone all in before anyone bet I likely would have taken down only 1 ½ blinds. To me, that’s a big difference.

Sometimes this strategy will bite me in the butt. 1 out of 10 times someone may catch trips on the flop. Hopefully they make a strong re-raise at this point and I can fold my Aces. More often they will catch top pair and I will likely bust them for their entire stack. Sometimes people will call my big bet with a flush or straight draw. If they do, I’ll win a big pot way more often then not since most times they will not catch the flush or straight. However, sometimes I’ll lose that big pot because those are the odds. What I’m not going to do is let those suckouts psych me out to the point that I no longer try to extract value from my pocket rockets.

Just my thoughts..... sprinkled with a touch of a rant.

Str8

P.S. Lulu got knocked out of PBL by a brutal poker play yesterday. She went all in with pocket rockets and was called by of all things pocket dueces. That call is brutal poker and only makes sense for a player that has no faith in their ability to play the game and just hopes to get lucky. At the very best the player making the call is in a coin flip, and any over pair dominates them. Sad to see the ducks win that one, but 81% of the time they will lose that hand.

[Lilluckylulu]

Well spoken Str8 and THANK YOU for the post.