It turns out that the discussion about how to play pocket Aces in a cash game is a very common one and a well discussed topic. I used Google Search and turned up over 43,00o hits on the topic. I have since read over a dozen of them and have digested what I have read to the point where I now know that I did in fact play the hand incorrectly.
The following paragraph was from my original post titled “Aces cracked on my first hand of the session!”
When it was my turn to be the big blind, I was dealt a pair of pocket Aces, the best starting hand possible before the flop. Two players to my left folded but the aggressive player raised by betting the pot, $1.75. Everyone folded to him and when it was my turn to bet, I raised the pot to $5.00 and the aggressive player called for $3.25. The flop was 8s,Tc,6h and I bet the size of the pot or $10.25 and the aggressive player called. The turn card was a king of hearts. Again I bet as much as I could, less than half of the pot, which put me all in for my remaining $14.75. The aggressive player called. He turned over an A6 off suit. He had only a pair of sixes against my pair of aces. The river card was a 6, giving him three sixes or the best hand and the aggressive player won the pot containing $57.25 which included my entire stack and whatever he bet, less the rake that DoylesRoom took from the pot.
According to the articles I read, where I went wrong was to continue to bet out as it appeared that my opponent was calling with some kind of draw regardless of the size of my bets. The rule of thumb about pocket aces is that you can win small pots with them or lose big pots with them. Even though I had the best hand right up to the turn, I failed to limit the amount of money I could lose if he hit his magic card on the river, which he did. That said, I had position on him and I had a good read on him and I hit a bit of bad luck when he hit the river card for three of a kind.
If I played hard only when I had the nuts, the best possible hand, I probably would not play many hands at all. In fact, for the most part, I fold almost 93% of my hands. I even fold the small blinds if I have junk cards most of the time. I do not defend the big blinds often without good cards but on occasion will re-raise a cut-off or button raise as they often try to steal the blinds.
The following are just a few of the links that I found regarding this topic and the articles that I have read on this topic.
http://www.rakebackriches.com/unfoldable-aces.htm
http://poker-info.com/tips/playing-pocket-aces.html
http://www.hollywoodpoker.com/green-room/poker-lifestyle/poker-stories/poker-coach-pocket-aces.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2256053_play-pocket-aces.html
http://www.towergaming.com/online-poker/school/strategy/pocket-aces-howto.html
http://stonecoldbluff.co.uk/articles/how-to-play-pocket-aces/
And these are just online resources. I am sure there are poker articles about playing pocket aces out there as well.
Where do you go to learn about playing pocket aces? What has you success been with the approach you take?
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