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Folding Aces in a Tough Spot

I always hear about how top notch players can fold their pocket Aces. It’s tough to fold those rockets but I’ve learned to do it, well I’ve actually forced myself to do it is more like it.

It’s easy to fold AA when the board is against you. Four to a flush on the Board or 4 to a straight will do it to you.  On a ragged board, it’s a lot harder.

So I’m cruising along in my home game. The blinds are .50/1.00 and everyone’s ready to gamble. I love this type of game as I’m almost assured of getting paid off if I can stave off the poker gods sticking it to me. That’s a big if.
But tonight they’re smiling on me. I’m hitting hands like nobody’s business. This is a night where my 6/4 spades are hitting the board hard and I’m getting paid off. The other players are calling me donkey but I think I know what I’m doing. I think.

I start off by buying in for $50. I could’ve bought in for $100 but I wanted to test the waters before I went in deep. I’m seated by the kitchen which is the worst place to sit because all the other players are always asking me to get them drinks or food. It’s annoying but the seat I was in was running hot, so I dealt with it.

The first hour of play was just about me feeling out the other players. 5 of the players I’ve played with before. The other 3 were wildcards. I didn’t have a good read on these guys because they’re relatively new to me. I start off playing aggressive against them, trying to set the tone. I’m winning small pots as it’s still early and nobody wants to re-buy just yet. $5 here, $6 there and I’m up around $50 by the second hour of play.

I go basically card dead the next hour. I don’t get involved in too many big pots although I witnessed a straight flush hit. The board has 3 hearts and two players are betting heavy into the pot.  One guy has K/5 hearts, the other guy has Q/8 hearts.

The board – 4,9,10 all hearts. Q/8 of hearts is first to act and he leads out for $7. K/5 hearts repops him $20. Q/8 hearts re-pops him for $60 and K/5 hearts pushes all-in. Q/8 only has about $30 or so left so he calls and declares that he’s probably behind but has one out.

The turn is a Jack of hearts. WOW. Sick hand. Tough break but he reloads for another Hundo.

By the 3rd hour things start to get looser. 3 people have reloaded so far. My 10/10 hits  a set and I win a $60 pot. My A/K suited doesn’t hit and I lose a $60 pot after my continuation bet gets re-raised (I fold). My 7/8 suited felts a short stack for about $50 when I fill my flush on the river. Back and forth we go. The chips are basically shifting from one side of the table to the other. Two players are doing very well. They’re up about $200. I’m still treading water but I manage to be positive $60.

The 4th hour I get hot. I win 3 hands in a row. I have A/10 hearts in the cutoff and call a EP raise of $6. I hit my 10 on the flop and EP bets out $10. I flat call. The deck peels off another 10 on the turn. Again the EP bets out. This time it’s for $20. Again I flat call. The river is a blank and EP bets out $40. I double his raise and he pays me off. He had QQ.

The hand after that I’m on the button. 3 players limp and I peek down and I see A/K diamonds. I raise to $5 and I all 3 limpers call. The flop has two diamonds. EP checks, MP bets out $15, the last limper folds, I flat call and EP calls. I hit an Ace on the turn. Awesome! I have TPTK and a nut flush draw. EP checks again, MP bets out $35, I re-pop him $100. EP folds. The original bettor, thinks for a bit and finally folds. Nice win for me, although I think I might have gotten more money from him if I had just flat called or re-raised him less but I was happy to take down a $100 pot regardless.  The very next hand I get 4/6 spades. I’m feeling hot so I decide to call a standard $4 pre-flop raise from a guy in MP. The flop is 4,5,3 with two hearts. The original bettor checks and I bet out $7. He calls. The turn is another 3. He checks again. I bet out $12. He calls. The river is a duece. I fill my straight. This time he bets out $15. I re-raise him $30. He then doubles my $30 re-raise. I think for a moment, cursing myself that I fell into this trap and he must have the boat in this situation. I was pretty sure this guy wouldn’t bet like that with the wheel would he? especially with the board the way it is. There’s the definite possibility of a fullhouse out there. I elect just to call. He shows A/4 clubs. I win another decent pot. That’s 3 hands in a row. Nice little run there.

By the 5th hour, 2 players are out and just hanging around eating, drinking or watching TV. They’ve lost two buy-ins and that’s enough for them. Jimmy, who’s a police officer is up around $450 and I’m up around $225 or so. I’ve played with Jimmy before. He always seem to get me from time to time. I’ve convinced myself that since he’s a cop, he sees right through my bluffs or he knows when I’m holding a good hand. Afterall he’s trained to look for suspicious activities all the time, that’s his job and I’m sure he probably knows when I’m bullshitting him. Or maybe that’s his angle, or maybe it’s my paranoia. In any event I’ve completely talked myself into thinking he’s on to me. I try and avoid tangling with him. Besides he’s the big stack and one of the few people left who can make my profitable night turn into dust.

It’s about 1am now, we’re in our 6th hour of playing poker and things are really slowing down. There’s only 6 of us left but one has only about $40 left so he’s probably going to push with anything decent. Jimmy has increased his stack maybe another hundo or so. I’m up around $300 and holding steady. I’m making timely plays and avoiding any huge pots where I think I’m behind. This is when I get AA.

6 hours of playing cards and I finally get the goods. Two black Aces. A sight to behold. Up to this point I’ve been had a few pocket pairs like JJ or 10s. A few middle pairs also. But nothing like the WMD of poker.

I’m in MP and I decide to raise it up preflop to $4. A standard bet. I get 3 callers including the BB. The flop is 3, 8, 9 rainbow. Jimmy, the BB checks and I check hoping that somebody bets out and I can go over him. It works. The button, Tony, bets out $10. Jimmy flat calls and I raise it up to $25. Both Tony and Jimmy call. The turn is a K. This time Jimmy bets out $40. I re-pop him to $100 and Tony, thinks for a few moments and reluctantly folds (he later told us he folded A/9). Jimmy re-pops me $150 on top. I think for a bit. How can I lay down AA on that board? I discount KK as Jimmy would’ve definitely raised  PF especially in the BB. I also discount A/K for the same reason. Could he have hit a set? or is he on a draw since there were two hearts out there. Jimmy is certainly capable of semi-bluffing in this spot. Heck, he’s capable of a stone cold bluff in this spot as well. But then he’s also capable of putting in a really good value bet if he puts me on a strong pocket pair and he has hit his set. This is a tough one. As I said in the beginning, I don’t think I’ve ever laid down a huge pair with a board that is seemingly non-threatening. I’ve lost with AA before in my home games but usually they weren’t for huge pots because some the other players I play with are just too weak or afraid of tossing in a nice big solid value bet because they’re afraid they’re not going to paid off when they hit their sets. Jimmy is different. He’s one of the handful of players that I know can and will do this. Not only that he’ll make a bluff like this also.

I go through the hand in my mind but I one thought sticks out more than the others. I’ve told myself that one of my leaks is that I don’t fold my big pockets enough and I’ve lost a ton of money because of that. So this is the time that I’m going to do what I could’nt before, do something that was unfathomable to me in previous sessions. I fold my Aces. Reluctantly; but I do.

I have to tell you it’s liberating in a way. The hardest part of folding Aces isn’t the actually folding. Folding was the easy part. In other words I was resigned to the fact that I was beat and thus I folded my hand just like the thousands of junk hands I’ve folded before. The hardest part of folding AA, in my opinion, is the fact that I might have folded the best hand. That thought lingers into the next hand and the next. It’s funny I can fold 1010, JJ or even QQ and those hands are pretty strong also. Heck I’ve folded two pair on a dangerous board. But there’s something about Aces that grips you and you’re reluctant to fold them. It’s maybe we’re conditioned to think that they’re so powerful that they’re almost invincible but in actuality they’re just another pair, albeit the pair there is but it’s still only a pair. That’s the hardest part of folding Aces…the psychological part of it. Did I do the right thing or was I chicken shit and folded the best hand. Normally, I can walk away from any poker hand and concentrate on the next one but this time was different. It was AA and I folded it for God’s sake!

In any event this threw my off my game for the next hour. I wasn’t sure of any of the hands I played after folding AA. I did manage to bust the $40 short stack with K/Q suited against his A/8. The game finally broke up around 1:30ish and I managed to eek out a small profit of $130.

Later on when Jimmy gave me a ride home, we talked about that hand. He told me that he had a set of 3s and he was nervous that I had a higher set! I told him I folded Aces and he couldn’t believe it. How can I fold Aces? He said.

“Well you weren’t 100% sure with a set of 3s and you’re surprised at me for folding Aces?” I said to him.

He said he would’ve called with a set of 3s no matter what and if I had a set of 8s then so be it, but folding Aces is really hard and he was impressed.  Most players he played against will fold two pair in certain situations but when they get Aces they’re going in hard and deep.  They simply can’t fold Aces.

I told him it wasn’t that hard and that I’ve done it dozens of times before. Ok so I lied. This was my first time. I broke my cherry and in a strange way it felt good. I know that in order to become better at something you have to overcome the hard things before things get easier. You have to make the hard choices in order to learn and grow. The harder the task the better off you’re going to be in the long run. I just may turn into a poker player yet….