What's the best way to play Aces in the pocket, sometimes called "Rockets in the Pocket," sometimes called "American Airlines?" Dont you just hate it when you ask a question and the answer is, It all depends? First of all, dont fall off the chair, jump up on it, scream, I got em, I got em, or smirk broadly when a couple Aces are your hole cards in a game of Texas Hold em. These are tells that might give an indication of the strength of your hand. If youve controlled the emotions that come when you have a happening that only occurs once in 220 hands, you can now look at your options. These are: fold, check, call, or raise (or perhaps re-raise if someone ahead of you puts more money in the pot). If your choice is to fold, read no more. Bring your checkbook to my house (may I send a limo for you?) and lets play. If your choice is to check or just call, that means you are slow playing them. Some wags say this is what you should do. Yes? Depends. If your choice is to raise or re-raise, you are playing them aggressively. Is that the correct play? Depends. What depends on what? Your pocket Aces will win about 80% of the time when you are heads up with just one player but will only win about 35% against ten players. So it depends on how many players are still in ahead of you. Your best play is to make it very expensive for players to stay with you. You want to narrow the field, hoping maybe just one or two players with inferior hands all hands are inferior to two Aces when only two cards have been dealt come along. You will do this by raising and re-raising the pot. If it is one of those games (common in free play or low stakes games) where just about everyone goes to the river, take a deep breath, a patience pill, and hope for better games. You really want to be in a cash game against better players when you have American Airlines because your opponents will pick up your betting signals and get out of your way unless they have what they consider to be a strong hand, say, KK. Then Rockets in the Pocket are great moneymakers. So, have you made the right choice? Depends. (c) 2005 Murphy James |
