On Sunday, I played two major online tournaments, one at bitcoin casino reviews and one at Bodog. And I ended up losing both tournaments with pocket aces. Usually you figure AA is a great opportunity to double up and get healthy in tournaments. Not this time though.
When playing aces in tournaments in early or middle position, about half the time I’ll slowplay and limp in, and the other half I’ll make a normal raise. On Bodog, I limped in. We were between the first and second break. Out of 800 entrants, there were about 600 left. So we were still very early in the tournament. Obviously I was hoping somebody would raise. Unfortunately, I only got four other limpers. The big blind was able to play for free, and he ended up flopping two pair with Q-6. I overplayed my one pair, and ended up being crippled. Soon after that, I was long gone. If I had raised pre-flop, there’s no way he would have played that hand.
In the Stars Million, I made a standard raise with my aces. It was just before the first break, still very early in the tournament. The guy on the button called, and so did the big blind. The flop came out 7-8-9. Not great, but not bad. Certainly I had to be worried about 7’s, 8’s, or 9’s, possbily even J-T. The big blind checked and I led out with a bet of half the pot. The button min-raised me and the big blind called. Hmmmmmm, not really sure what to think here. It’s possible that the button had one of the hands I have to worry about, but I figured he had something like 6-6 or T-T. And the big blind calling that bet probably had T-9, T-8, or some other hand that had a pair and a draw. I could have folded in this spot. If I’m behind, I’m way behind. If I’m ahead, I’m not that far ahead. But I overplayed it and moved all-in. Both of them called. Well, crap. The first hand I saw was the button’s - Q-Q - nice. But the big blind flopped the nuts with J-T. And I was out of that tournament with cracked aces. No $200k payday for me this time. Now, if I had slowplayed the hand pre-flop, the button would most likely have raised with his queens, the big blind would have called, and I would have come over the top. At that point the queens may have stayed in, but the J-T would have folded, and I would have won the pot.
So in those two hands, I zigged when I should have zagged, and vice versa. I’m still going to play it the same pre-flop, about 50% raise and 50% limp. But the bottom line is that I played both hands poorly after the flop. Aces are certainly not automatically a winning hand, and I need to be able to let them go in the right situation. And to the random number generators on the bitcoin casinos software, keep those aces coming please. I ain’t scurred.