What to do - what to do!! How does one play aces correctly? I will never begin to know the answer to that one. In Sunday morning's tournament at the Crazy Moose, I was enjoying a very nice chip lead of almost 11,000 (we start with 5,000) not even one hour into the tournament. I looked down and saw those pesky aces. Blinds were only 50-100 at this point. Mike raised to 300. I raised to 1,000 and got called by Diane and Mike. The flop was K-9-3 with the king and nine being diamonds. Normally, I would play pretty soft here trying to get some extra chips, but I did not like the 2 diamonds on the flop, especially when I had 2 callers and one of them could easily have A-Q of diamonds or some such thing. (Obviously, I did not have the ace of diamonds.)
Mike checked and yours truly got stupid and went all-in. Normally, this would not be a problem because most normal players and maybe even most abnormal players would fold because I had them covered, but, golly gee, would you fold a set of kings??? I think not. That's what Diane had. I knew it instantly too because she called so fast that I didn't even have time to think to myself, "Please be ace-king!!". Drat! Mike folded and I was stuck.
Luckily, I still had about 3,900 left after this fiasco, but on the other hand, I was never able to gain any traction after that and went out about halfway through the tournament. Phooey!!
I have been thinking about this particular case for awhile and I really don't think it would have ended up any other way, unless I slow played and another diamond came or another straight card and then I could have folded my aces without too much damage. (Yes, I am a player who can fold aces when necessary.) In hindsight, I guess I should have just made a bet and waited to see what Diane and Mike did.
How do you play aces? I just don't know. Most of the time, I think it's OK to push hard before the flop, which I did because I reraised the original raiser. Sometimes, such as when there is only one player left in an unraised pot, I think it's OK to limp and trap. I think there are about as many ways to play aces as there are players and that's just too many darned ways if you ask me - ha! Live and learn. That's what I love about poker more than anything else - thinking of new strategies.
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That was just bad luck. With any luck you both would have been all-in preflop with her looking for two outs. I have seen the same scenario with pair and overpair so many times. Many people will overplay queens or jacks and get lucky...like in the big tournament on Sunday Alex lost to Marco with his Jacks agains Marco's 9's when Marco flopped quads! You did the right thing with the reraise, and they both were dumb (sort of, except for kings) by calling. You should do exactly the same thing next time, and with any luck the kings will re-reraise all-in and you will win! You are so right about aces, you love em and hate em. I have busted out of so many tournaments with them. I have seen slow players busted by big blinds that never would have called a raise then flop two pair or trips. My new favorite way to play them if big stack is just to push all-in, hoping someone reads it as a small pair hoping not to see a flop and them calling with ace king or medium pair. If I am a small stack and eveyone has limped to me in a blind I will check my option then push with any flop. Most everyone will fold except for top pair or overpair and you can then go head to head rather than against 5 people (it's formal name is "stop and go". I would have won at least 3 times that I got knocked out by going this way rather than just raising and having everyone call and check to river.
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