Poker is an easy game really. People want to make it hard. Of course, there are variations of poker. It can get complicated if you let it. Let me give you an example: In NLHE (No Limit Hold Em), you get dealt your two hold cards. You get two aces, the best starting hand. Now some will try to get tricky and try to slow play the best hand in NLHE. Slow playing, for those that don't know, is basically trying to trap your opponent. In this case, you would bet low (relative to the pot) or call a minimum bet.
You think you are being clever when you slow play a good hand like that. And it could work out. Especially if you are playing one on one. But beware if you are playing more than one player. You are just asking for trouble. You are giving your advantage away by playing passive or tricky. You would benefit by betting or raising to eliminate players to get someone heads up, if possible. Even if you get someone heads up is no guarantee that you win. Check out this player to see how you can get in trouble by slow playing aces.
Now, many have slow played aces and won. It happens. It is a great hand. To start. But poker is a game of percentages. You are basically giving up your advantage by playing a monster like AA passively. I hardly ever slow play aces. Maybe about 5 percent of the time. When I do, I can only hope to play it like Phil Ivey does on this hand.
I am not trying to tell you how to play. Many people have won in many different ways, using multiple ways of playing. It depends on a combination of skill and luck. However, I will almost always raise AA very high preflop to make someone pay the price for seeing the flop. It doesn't work everytime, obviously. The five cards in the middle will make you cuss sometimes. Luck plays a part as does the numbers. But I feel overall it is the best way to play AA, most of the time. Come on out to scorumpoker.com and check out the best poker site in the crypto world and try playing AA. Good luck with that!
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