You can lose a big pot with pocket aces

Lounge News · #1 (**permalink**) 03-27-09, 05:10 PM

You can lose a big pot with pocket aces

By Steve Rosenbloom | Chicago Tribune

Pocket aces might make up the best starting hand in Texas hold 'em, but the old line remains a welcome caveat:

You can win a small pot with aces, but you can lose a big one.

You want to play your aces heads-up against a single opponent because you are at least a 4-1 favorite against another pocket pair. If you get involved in a multi-way pot, you can get in a trouble if you aren't disciplined enough to lay them down.

"You just have to let it go sometimes," said Johnny Chan, the 1987 and '88 World Series of Poker main event champion.

At the 2008 WSOP main event, with blinds at $50-$100, Chan drew pocket aces under the gun. He chose to limp into the pot instead of raising to narrow the field.

Worse, there were four other callers, devaluing the power of aces. The player next to Chan called with pocket queens. The player in the cutoff seat limped with 6-4 offsuit. The button called with pocket jacks, then the big blind checked his option.

"Now it becomes a tough hand to play," Chan said.

The flop came 4-2-3, two diamonds. After the big blind checked, Chan bet $250.

"The pot's only $500, so there's no reason to bet any more," said Chan.

He found out when he got called by the player with queens, the player holding 6-4 and the player with jacks.

"With three callers, that tells me that my aces are less than 50 percent," Chan said.

The turn came the 9 of diamonds. Chan and the player with queens checked. The player with 6-4 made it $4,750. The player with jacks called. Chan folded his aces.

So did the player with queens. The river came the 8 of diamonds. The two remaining players checked. The player with 6-4 took the pot because his 6 of diamonds made a flush.

It turned out that the player who folded queens folded would've scooped the pot with a higher diamond. It also turned out that Chan would've lost a lot of chips if he didn't have the ability to lay down his aces before the river.

"I only had invested $350," Chan said. "Why do I want to risk $10,000 on that? Why would I want to risk that to find out if my hand's good? That's silly."

Table Talk
Under the gun: The player immediately to the left of the big blind who is first to bet before the flop.