How many times have your AA been cracked online? Would you want to know how to get your AA the most money possible? Here is the best way to get the most money out of your AA!
Online:
In online play as you may know, people are very aggressive and people play a lot of different hands. People will play hands anywhere from 9 T suited to 5 6 suited to AK or better, or worse in that case. To avoid hands like the 5 6 suited or the 9 T suited, against your aces, which is only 73% advantage here are the steps that you need to take:
(All scenarios are in tournament play with 5x the starting chips of the tournament. For example: if you started a tournament with 10,000 chips, you would have 50,000 chips for these examples.)
Early Position:[/color] (first to act-third to act, not including the blinds)
[color=red]1. Always limp with AA. If blinds are 200/400, in online poker, people raise with mediocre hands like 9 T or even 5 6 suited to 1200 or even 1600 chips. If another person calls the 1200 or 1600 chip bet, that means the pot would be 3000-3800 chips, I would put in a raise of 5000 more chips (pushing in a bet of 5800-6200), this bet would put pressure on your opponent to either fold or move in.
2. If you put in that raise of 5800-6200 and a person calls, you have to figure that the person has to have a pair in the whole, or a hand like A K, A K suited, A Q suited, and so on.
3. If the flop comes all unders such as, 10d 6s 4c, you have to figure you are winning in the hand so a check here would be the play. This would be the play because now you gave your opponent the thought that maybe you have a hand like A K suited or A Q suited. You give your opponent the shot in trying to steal the pot, but of course we know, your not going to fold this hand.
4. If the flop comes a rainbow such as, Kd 9h 4c, you would want to bet at this pot, with a bet of the pot. If you bet at this pot, you will get an all in if your opponent has a hand like A K or even K Q suited. A check in this position is not the correct play because you could let your opponent see a free card, which your opponent could hit a better hand. If you bet and your opponent folds, you take down a very nice pot, which could benefit you into making a final table.
5. If any flush draw hits on the flop such as, Qd 6d 2c, you need to make a pot size bet, or even over-bet the pot so that you put your opponent in a hard decision to call. An all in bet here, might not be a bad play, its just that, if your opponent doesn’t have many chips then it is an easy call for him to make.
6. Same with straight draws, if the flop comes, Jd 10c 4s, if your opponent has a hand like KQ you need to move in, or make a huge bet, to where he would have to risk a big amount of his chips to see the next card or 2.
7. If you make a bet of 5800-6200 and a person moves in, of course the play is to call, and hope that the AA holds up against your opponents’ hand.
If raising in this early position, people are going to put you on a big hand.
You might get a call preflop, but unless your opponent hits on the flop that is all you will get. Most likely, 75% of the time, your opponents will not call you. You will just get the blinds.
Middle Position: (fourth-sixth position)
1. If you get 1 or more people too limp in before you acting, you should make a pot size bet so that you put everybody on the table in an awkward position.
2. If you get a call by 1 person, and the flop comes like step 3 in the early section, you should bet out, to force your opponent into a decision. A check would only be a good play if the person that called you is behind you.
3. If the opponent checks in front of you, you should make a bet that is about half of the pot. For example: if the blinds are 200/400 and your sitting with 50,000 chips, and you raised preflop to 2000 and the person in the big blind calls you. The pot is about 4600. When the flop comes and the person checks, you should make a bet like 2000-2300 chips. This is a good bet because, you would figure that if your opponent had a huge hand he would reraise, to where maybe you would have the ability to fold or, he would call, and so you could extract more and more chips from the other player. Of course, there is always the factor that he would fold, to where you could just take down the pot there.
4. If nobody before you calls the big blind, or raises, you should put in a good raise of about 5x the big blind, or 2000 chips in this example. The reason why this is a good bet is because you don’t want people with mediocre hands entering the pot, and suck out on you. With this bet, it is big enough so that people will not call you with those “crappy” hands.
Again, just like in Early Position, you have to make pot size bets, or even over-bet the pot so that “suckers” don’t come into the pot, knowing that they have to hit runner runner. Like Doyle Brunson always said, “You gotta make your opponent pay when you know you have the best.” That’s why I say bet at least the pot so that you can take down a fairly reasonable pot, or maybe, get the guy to push in, and take all of his chips.
Late Position: (seventh and eighth)
1. This is the strongest position that you can be in at the poker table. With AA in the whole and you have the dealer button right in front of you, but the most common mistake when being in position like this, is too make a very small raise so that people will stay in with you. Well when you do this kind of thing, this is when you get stories about how somebody with 7 9 suited or Q 6 suited cracked my AA, well its because you let them come in for a very cheap price, and with pot odds.
2. When in late position, unless it is just you and the blinds, you want to make a huge raise (at LEAST the size of the pot), so that those limpers cant see a cheap flop. It is easy for a limper to limp in, in early position thinking that he has the best hand the whole time, not knowing your holding AA in the pocket. I know since playing poker, I have got paid off when raising huge on the button because people are thinking that I am trying to steal in position, which is not nearly the case.
3. Whenever you get called preflop, you should always bet the pot if you are most certain that you have the best hand. If you are iffy about the hand, thinking that there is a possibility that you are beat, I would make what is called a “feeler bet”, meaning, I would bet about half of the pot to see where your opponents are at.
4. When playing against the blinds, you would want to push in a bet of about 5x the big blind, or 2000 chips. This bet will steal there blinds, or if they do have a good hand, they will call you preflop. Thus on the flop you should bet the pot unless uncertain that your hand is good.
The key about playing these two famous cards is: you have to put your opponents into decisions. If you bet 800 when the blinds are only 200/400, this will not push your opponent out. This will let your opponents see very cheap cards, and thus could hit runner runner to beat you. Which as everybody knows online, that could very well happen.
These I feel are the keys to success when playing AA, if you use these tips that I have supplied you, I feel that you will take down more and more pots with AA, and not having those horrid stories of how you got sucked out by 8 9 suited or even 5 8 suited or a stupid hand like that.
