Aces

After several misplayed hands, I am starting to see that the old adage “win a small pot or lose a big pot with aces” is really true. Here is one trouble hand:

Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 5: SpeakEasy_ ( $219.10 )
Seat 4: Villain ( $197.25 )
SpeakEasy_ posts small blind [$1].
Rogue166 posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SpeakEasy_ [ Ad As ]
Everyone fold to Button
Villain raises [$6].
SpeakEasy_ raises [$14].
BB folds.
Villain calls [$9].

** Dealing Flop ** [ 2h, Qs, 6s ]
SpeakEasy_ bets [$18].
Villain calls [$18].

** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
SpeakEasy_ bets [$65].
Villain calls [$65].

** Dealing River ** [ Td ]
SpeakEasy_ is all-In [$121.10]
Villain is all-In [$99.25]
SpeakEasy_ shows [ Ad, As ] a pair of aces.
Villain shows [ Kc, Qh ] two pairs, kings and queens.
SpeakEasy_ wins $21.85 from side pot #1 with a pair of aces.
Villain wins $393.50 from the main pot with two pairs, kings and queens.

Critical analysis of the way I played this hand:
First, I think my PF raise is OK. I want to build a bigger pot, but I really don’t want to scare him away. He could have a wide range of hands, but if he calls its probably something other than complete junk. I could have raised more, to maybe $20, but I don’t think that would have changes the outcome.

On the flop, I almost certainly have the best hand. I probably bet too small, but he also probably calls a pot-sized bet anyway. So, this is somewhat of a mistake on my part, but it still gives me the information that I need to proceed -- he very likely has a queen. At this point, I’d put him on AQ, KQ, QJ or QT, probably not QQ, but that’s also possible. A heart draw is also likely. He could also have a set or AK, but that’s less likely.

I kind of goof on the turn. I think a smaller bet here gives me all the info that I need. I bet the pot, but if I bet maybe a 2/3 bet and get called this should still signal trouble. A 2/3 bet is enough to correctly price out the heart draw. If I make a slightly smaller bet here and get called, I should be thinking about seeing the cheapest possible showdown from this point forward and cross my fingers. AK becomes a possibility, because I would probably call here with AK also, but KQ is now a serious concern.

My river push is just awful. I should be trying to see the showdown without putting in any more money. He’s only going to call this if he has me beat, or possibly if he has AK. At the time, I was thinking that he was calling the turn with either a draw or AK. I didn’t think this through enough to give KQ enough serious consideration. A smaller bet would induce a bad call with AK, which I want. Just a horrible play on the river.

I’ve stacked players with similar hands. The most recent was my KJ vs AA. I raised in MP PF. Villain re-raised a substantial amount on the button, which I actually liked because I immediately thought AA. I flopped 2 pair, checked the flop, and he pushed.

Focusing on the bigger picture, AA usually just remains a one-pair hand all the way to the river. Most of my profit in NL cash games comes from sneaky sets, straights and flushes. I have learned to avoid big pots with one pair and even two-pair hands. A decent amount of my wins comes from playing the flop aggressively when I whiff, such as raising PF with AK or AQ, getting a raggedy flop, and simply betting big to represent a big PP. Usually this results in a fold unless my isolated opponent flopped a sneaky big hand or also has a decent overpair (TT or better).

But AA leads to frequent overplaying. My mentality is to continue to treat AA the same way as if I flopped a set, which is just assigning too much strength on the flop. The hand above is a perfect example. If I had JJ or TT instead of AA, I would naturally be much more cautious, and absolutely would not put my stack at risk. I think the best plan with AA going forward is to make the price seriously steep PF, and then treat my hand as I would treat TT or JJ on the flop, in terms of relative strength.

This way, I’m much less likely to get stacked in this manner again, and I’m getting my money into the pot when I am the clear favorite rather than when I might be the favorite. In a NL cash game, AA is the only hand where I should move the ‘pressure point’ to PF action, in order to avoid trouble and misplaying later, at the risk of telling the table what I’ve got PF. I’ll win the big money later with bigger hands.