The Problem With Weak Aces in Poker
Marcus Bateman
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Marcus Bateman /
31 March 2009 /
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Although looking down at any hand with an ace instinctively feels like a good in hand, the reality of hold'em is that basically any hand below ace ten that is not suited can be extremely problematic to play.
Weak aces tend to be the hand that you see bad players get in the most trouble with at the table. This is because weak aces are usually very far behind most good hands in hold'em, and weak players seem to misunderstand the mathematics of weak aces and habitually over play them
In terms of pre flop all in odds, a hand like ace seven only has a 25% chance of winning against a better ace, and 25% chance against any pair bigger than sevens, and is basically dead against aces. It is also only about 60/40 against any two cards between aces and sevens, so even when you are ahead of a hand like king jack, it is not by much. Against all pairs lower than sevens it is a classic 50/50 race, with the pair holding a slim edge.
So we can clearly see that in terms of pre flop all ins, weak aces tend to do pretty badly against most of a player's calling range, either being a little ahead or behind, or massively behind. This is not the only problem with weak aces though. The real difficulty with them is that even if you flop your ace, it can be very difficult to ever know where you are.
As good players tend to play only the bigger aces, even if you flop top pair with these hands you will often lose a big pot to someone with a bigger kicker. In fact, about the only flop you ever want to see with weak aces is when you flop two pair, and hopefully get action from someone with a big ace. Calling with a hand that can only flop two pair for you to feel comfortable with is never a good idea in hold'em - you simply miss far too often to make such calls justified.
Although looking down at any hand with an ace instinctively feels like a good in hand, the reality of hold'em is that basically any hand below ace ten that is not suited can be extremely problematic to play - unless you have the necessary post flop skills to deal with the very tricky situations that can come up. If you don't feel you have these skills it is best just to let these hands go - they will usually lose far more money than they will win.
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