01/02 NL Playing Ace rag

[Teddie]

haha, woops. It was a jack of clubs, dunno where i pulled a 6 from.

[jessanders]

Here's the thing about AJ-A2 pre-flop at a full table from early position.

And this goes for an awful lot of other hands. I NEVER call before the flop when I don't know what I want to come on the flop.

That's basically saying if you have A-8 offsuit, and you limp, if someone raises, what do you want, realistically, to come on the flop?

Well, you don't know if an Ace would really help, as anyone with A9-AK would have you in horrible shape.

You also don't really want an 8 high flop, as anyone with 9's or better would have you in bad shape.

I've found myself saving lots of money folding those hands pre-flop. In my normal live games I show KQ to the people sitting around me when I fold preflop a lot, and they always think I'm crazy, 'til someone turns up a hand that has it beat.

And b/t/w, I make my most money on people who overplay Ace-rag, as do a lot of people on these forums. Become the shark, not the fish, and you'll see your BR skyrocket.

[ChuckDiesel]

my friends watched me play online (post 2+2 and books) and they were shocked that i fold "gigantic" hands like KJ UTG. Ace 9 ? are you crazy Chuck? that was an ACE !!!!

Basically if you went into the posts where people post their stats you will quickly see a pattern emerge where the later the position the more profit they make off it.

UTG sucks even with AA .. sometimes you get LUCKY and a moron doesn't respect your UTG raise and you win big. Mostly since you're acting first you're gonna have 3 [censored] scenarios and 1 good one.

1. You hit and bet and everyone folds since EP bets show massive strength. (this is on a flop where no one hit) and you win the limps which maxes out at 9 BB's minus rake.

2. You miss and check and a bet comes and you're either chasing a dead draw like a [censored] or you gotta fold and you just blew off 1 blind "just to see" Do that 10 times in an hour and you blew off 10 blinds for absolutely no reason.

3. You miss and bet anyway which is psychotic and either they all fold if you're massively fortunate or you get called and have no idea where you stand or you get raised and you should fold but since you don't know where you're at thoughts of being tricked etc. start to creep in and you find yourself putting more money in the pot with nothing.

4. You hit and they hit but you hit bigger and they're too dumb to smell it. This is rare much more rare than the other 3. This is the only one that makes you any substantial money. How often do you realistically expect this to happen.

To sum it up in early positions you're liable to set traps for your own self betting blind into people behind you so when you lose you'll surely lose big, or you will hit and it'll be pretty obvious and you'll win small. Poker is gambling with varying odds. The great thing about poker is you can do a lot to maximize your odds. Folding in EP with anything but the best hands is one way to do so.

Lose small,win big stay away from early positions.

I think some players feel nervous about folding as in like "what if this is THE hand" wheras they should be saying "I just saved a BB by not calling this utter trash"

You can feel VERY confident throwing away drawing hands, weak aces, KJ , KQ , QJ etc. Save those for when you're one of the last couple people to act and watch how much easier decisions become.