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About 15% of the time,
one of your hole cards will be an ace.
That's about one out of every seven hands,
six times an hour, or fifty times per eight
hour playing session that you'll be dealt an
ace with another random card. It's very
important that you learn to play correctly
when you have an ace, as this one aspect of
the game alone has a huge effect on your
hourly rate.
If you're in a certain
situation as many as six times per hour, and
you have a chance to put as many as four or
more big bets into play each time, then you
can see what an impact playing your aces
correctly can have on your hourly rate. When
you're betting as many as twenty-four big
bets per hour, you'd better know what you're
doing if your long-term goal is to win one
to two big bets per hour.
Here is the golden
rule of playing with an ace: Every other
player at the table also gets an ace one out
of six hands. Getting an ace is no big deal,
so there has to be something special about
yours. Following are two tables of
ace-related odds that will be helpful to
you:
ODDS THAT YOU WILL BE DEALT
|
At least one ace |
5.7-1 |
|
AK (not suited) |
110-1 |
|
AK (suited) |
331-1 |
|
AA |
221-1 |
PERCENTAGE CHANCE THAT NO ONE HOLDS AN
ACE BEFORE THE FLOP
|
In a ten-handed game |
13.3% |
|
If you do
(ten-handed) |
25.3% |
|
If you don't
(ten-handed) |
15.6% |
|
In a five-handed
game |
41.3% |
|
If you do
(five-handed) |
58.6% |
|
If you don't
(five-handed) |
48.6% |
Looking at this second
table, you can see that in a ten-handed
game, someone will be dealt an ace 86.7% of
the time, if you have an ace, another player
will also have one 74.7% of the time, and if
you don't have an ace, someone else will
have one 84.4% of the time. You can see the
importance of playing your aces correctly.
Most low limit players
see the flop every time they have an ace in
their hand. Most low limit players are also
losers in the long run, and I can tell you
that this incorrect play of aces is one of
the reasons. A player who learns to play his
aces correctly will have a fixed big leak in
his game. With an opportunity to make an
expensive mistake as often as once every six
hands, it is positively worth your time and
effort to learn to play correctly.
If you're one of those
players who likes to play every ace, and
you're looking to improve your game a little
bit without too much work, the best advice I
can give you is: don't play your ace unless
your other card is either a 10 or higher or
the same suit as your ace. This will plug a
big leak in your game and help keep you out
of trouble if you're presently playing more
hands.
How you play a hand
depends on the situation you are facing when
it is your turn to act. A correct play in
one instance might not be best the next time
you have that same hand. My main purpose
here is to make you think about your aces,
so you don't automatically play all of them
every time.
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