|
Playing Aces
By Annie Duke
Playing aces from early position before the flop is one of the most misplayed situations in No Limit Hold’em. Whenever you have a big hand out of position, it’s much more difficult to extract the maximum amount of money from your opponent than when you’re in position. And having A-A early in the action before the flop qualifies as one of these situations.
Many people choose to limp with the intention of back-raising. They call the big blind in the hope that someone will raise behind them before the flop so they can reraise. While this might look to be a cunning play on the surface, it is one that is actually less profitable than just coming out and raising in the first place.
The first problem is that, by simply limping in, you are inviting many people into the pot, and that can spell disaster for pocket aces. First, all hands, even aces, like to play with fewer players, because it increases the probability that the hand will hold up without improvement. So by raising, you’re limiting the field and increasing the likelihood that there will be only one or two callers before the flop. And even for aces, one or two callers is your optimal situation.
But this is not the only problem with limping. There is also an information issue. Raising gives you information about what your opponents are holding. If you limp, and a bunch of players limp behind you, you could be faced with a difficult decision. When the board comes something like 4-5-6, it is impossible to know whether the board has hit one of the limpers, since you know so little about what they have. But when an opponent calls a raise behind you, you now know much more about that player’s hand. It’s likely to be big cards or a high pair, and now 4-5-6 becomes a much less scary board for your aces.
Any time you can decrease the difficulty of your decision-making process later in a hand by gathering information early in a hand, it is a good thing. By limping preflop with aces, you are increasing the difficulty of your decisions after the flop about whether your aces are good. By raising, you are drastically narrowing down your opponent’s possible holdings, thus making all decisions after the flop much easier.
But the fun doesn’t stop there – there is a money issue involved with limping as well. Limping with aces is often the less profitable play. If someone raises behind you, and you reraise, then you have effectively turned your cards face up. Your opponent now knows you have aces or kings, and a hand like J-J, Q-Q, A-Q, or even sometimes A-K, will now fold to you. It’s very important that you keep your cards obscured from your opponents, and the backraise does just the opposite, allowing cards that might have played with you and lost a lot of money, to get off their hand cheap.
If you choose to open the pot for a raise, now those same hands that folded when you back-raised will reraise you. You can now choose to call, or reraise again. If you just call, an opponent will often lose his or her whole stack to a low board. Not only that, but some people will reraise-bluff you with weak hands, which they won’t do against a backraise.
This difference translates into lots more dollars won. Let’s say you are playing a $5/$10 No Limit Hold’em game. You have A-A in early position and limp in for $10. There is now $25 in the pot. A player behind you now raises to $35, which makes for $60 in the pot. You reraise and the player folds. That is $50 won.
Now, let’s say you are in the same game and you open the pot for $30. There is now $45 in the pot. The same player now reraises you to $100. Now there is $145 in the pot. You can choose to flat call or reraise, but either way, you are a favorite to win at least $115, and, if the board comes right, you might get your opponent’s whole stack.
So which would you rather do? Limp in and risk having to play your hand against seven players, praying your A-A holds up? Limp in and gather the least amount of information possible about your opponents’ hands, so that making decisions after the flop is maximally difficult? Limp in, in the hope that someone raises behind you so you can backraise and win only $50?
Or would you rather raise and limit the field, gather the most information, and win at least $115, if not a whole stack? Seems like an easy decision to me.
|
|
