“How to lose with Pocket Aces”
Author: J. Scott Miller

When playing poker online, you have one distinct disadvantage (if you are a good player), and that is you cannot see your opponent’s faces. Knowing your odds of winning a hand helps a lot, but really in the end, it can boil down to plain old luck.

How good do you have to be to draw a pair of aces? Online poker now offers table sizes of 6 players, which is more popular these days. With a table size of 10, your odds of catching a pair of aces in the hole are about 220 to 1. That is an automatic win, right? Simply go “all-in” and it’s over. A good portion of the time going “all-in” only scares most of the players out of the hand and your 220 to 1 hand is shot to hell, and you’ve won a minimal amount of money. Of course someone can call you if they have good cards. Any high pair would prompt a call, and from there, as they say, “it’s all in the cards,” or the flop in this case. But still, your odds of winning are high.

Table position is key when drawing aces, and how you play them. If you can be lucky enough to draw them in the “Big or Small Blinds,” you would be the last player to make a call, or even a raise. That would be the time to raise, especially if several people have called the minimum ante. Depending on the amount you raise will determine how many people will stick around to see the flop. If a re-raise comes, that is the moment of truth and you shove your all of your chips to the center of the table.

If you are in the middle of the table, and few people are calling, you might want to make a subtle raise, or just call. If you raise a ton, there you are again with a couple of bucks and your fantasy hand has gone “bye-bye.”

Here is how I lose with pocket aces:

I am sitting there minding my own business, playing 25/50 cent blinds, when BAM! It happens, and I begin to wonder what to do! Pocket aces have fallen out of the sky and God likes me again. I am in the middle of the table and three people have called in front of me. So here is what I think I’ll do: “I pull a sneak attack on them!” I’ll slither up behind them like a cobra and take a bite. I will “lay low,” and just make the 50 cent call, letting in as many people in the hand as possible. And when the flop comes, I will drop the hammer on them, and it will all be over before they know what hit them.

Unfortunately, the “Lay low, and play it slow” is really a bad way to play the hand. What you are doing is allowing the players with average or sub-par hands play the hand at a minimal cost. And when the flop comes (This has happened to me) and it is 2h-2s-7d, and several people have checked in front of me, I will make my bet. Maybe I won’t pull the trigger, but I will bet $5. Then someone down the line goes “all-in” on me, and I think I have the hand all locked up. I call the all-in bet, and that person was on the big blind and had 2d and 7h. He flopped a full house! “Oh my God,” I say to myself. I just lost to statistically the worst hand in poker. Had I raised anything, he would have folded. Apparently God no longer likes me.

But… Oh well, See you at the tables!

Author Bio:
J. Scott Miller is a freelance writer as well as a poker and sport betting enthusiast. Decades of experience as both a poker player and professional sporting news junkie plus his continued dedication to journalism has made him more than qualified to be our leading writer at OGN.

110% Sign up Bonus at Intertops New Online Poker Room

ATTENTION WEBMASTERS AND BLOGGERS:

This poker and/or gambling related article is copyrighted and may not be reposted, republished, copied or reproduced without permission.

If you wish to repost and/or republish this article on your website or blog free of charge you must use THE EXACT HTML CODE on your website or blog:

Failure to comply will result in a civil litigation and/or criminal prosecution.

©2009 – 2010 – All rights reserved – http://www.online-gambling-newz.com