Whether you are a seasoned poker professional or a recreational player who enjoys the game and plays mostly for fun, looking down at pocket Aces is a special feeling. 

At that moment, you know you have the best possible Texas Hold’em hand, and all your thoughts are focused on how to get the most money into the pot as soon as possible. 

Pocket Aces is the best and most profitable hand in any form of poker, but just because you are guaranteed to win with it in the long run doesn’t mean you should not learn how to play it optimally as well. 

There are many pitfalls of playing Aces less than optimally, and this article will help you avoid some of them and play your pocket Aces better next time. 

Keep on reading and find out how to play the best possible starting hand in Texas Hold’em Poker in different situations. 

Tip #1. Play Pocket Aces Aggressively Preflop

One of the biggest mistakes players make with pocket Aces is that they try to get too fancy with them, looking to get their opponents to put money into the pot in unorthodox ways. 

This includes limping with Aces in early positions, just calling early position raises, and choosing not to come over the top of 3-bet. 

While some of these plays can make sense now and then, and Aces are a good hand to include in some trapping ranges, you should play them aggressively the vast majority of the time. 

This is especially true when stacks are deep, as the last thing you want to do is allow your opponents to go to the flop with a very wide range for very few big blinds.

For instance, if you limp pocket Aces from an early position, you run the risk of other players coming along for the ride and the big blind checking. 

In this kind of scenario, you may be up against two, three, or more hands, and the ranges of each of the opponents are extremely wide. 

Similarly, if you just call an early position raise with AA on the button, you allow the big blind into the pot with good pot odds, and you don’t define the opener’s range at all. 

What’s even more, by not re-raising right then and there, you allow the early position to get off cheap on many boards with hands like QQ, JJ, or AK, which may shut down on unfavorable flops. 

In short, if you are dealt pocket Aces, and the effective stack is more than 30 big blinds, you should almost always opt for the aggressive action. 

Tip #2. Keep Aggression Postflop Until You Have a Reason Not To

When you enter a pot with pocket Aces, you always have the best hand until the flop hits, and in the vast majority of cases, you still do once it does. 

For that reason, you will almost always be playing Aces for value on the flop and looking to get more money into the pot by the river. 

One common mistake inexperienced poker players make with pocket Aces is that they are too afraid of their opponents having particularly strong hands that beat them. 

For example, on a flop of Jh9s5d, some players may be afraid to continue aggressively with the Aces, as the player who called in position may have JJ, 99, or 55. 

However, just the fact that the opponent called preflop hardly means they have any of these hands. In fact, hands like KJs, QTs, or T9s are all more likely, and they will all continue against a bet on this flop. 

On a flop like this and most others, your pocket Aces rate to be the best hand, and you will want to be c-betting whenever possible. 

Until your opponent puts in a raise, there is literally no reason to think you are beaten. In many cases, you will get one or two calls, and your opponent may opt to fold on the river. 

Of course, if the board comes extremely unfavorable for our Aces and the opponent is showing a lot of aggression, we may also find a fold with this hand. However, it is very important not to approach playing Aces from a fatalistic point of view and think about all the ways you could lose a big pot with them. 

Tip #3. Size Your Bets Properly with Pocket Aces

Now that you know you should play your Aces aggressively on most boards, the question is, what is the right bet size you should choose?

The answer to this question depends on the size of the pot by the flop, as well as the board texture that the flop reveals. 

Typically speaking, in 3-bet and 4-bet pots, the pot will already be big enough that you will be able to size down on the flop and still get plenty of money in by the river. 

For example, imagine the following hand. Playing a $1/3 cash game with a starting stack of $300, you are dealt AcAh in the small blind. The cutoff raises to $10, and you make it $45, which your opponent calls. 

With $95 already in the pot, you will not need to bet too much on the flop to get your stack in by the river on favorable runouts. 

A bet of $35 here will build the pot up to $165 by the turn if your opponent decides to call, which will only leave you with $220 behind. 

Depending on the board texture and the runout, you may size up a little bit or go even smaller and still comfortably get all the money in the pot on the turn and river. 

On the other hand, if you decide to bet $75 right now, you may often scare your opponent away with a medium strength hand and cost yourself more value on future streets as well. 

Tip #4. Play Cautiosly in Multiway Pots

In an ideal scenario, every time you are dealt pocket Aces, another player at the table has a hand like pocket Kings, and all the money goes in preflop. 

However, scenarios like this are less common in the real world. More often, you raise your Aces, and a couple of players call the raise behind you. 

With multiple callers, the danger of someone flopping a hand better than a pair of Aces grows, while the likelihood of them paying you off with less dwindles. 

For these reasons, GTO poker prefers playing pocket Aces in multiway situations with a dose of caution. 

While you will still often have the best hand with AA on many flops against two or three opponents, such hands will be significantly more complex. 

For one, competent players will use their drawing hands to exert pressure on you and other opponents, but such hands will be hard to distinguish from made hands like sets, two pairs, or straights. 

On the other hand, your opponents will often actually have a better hand than yours, but folding might be hard, exactly because potential draws might play the hand the same way. 

Playing pocket Aces multiway is a science of its own, and avoiding such spots is one of the key reasons we recommend playing Aces aggressively before the flop whenever possible. 

When you do find yourself playing a multiway pot with pocket Aces, trying to identify your opponents’ playing styles can be key. 

Against very aggressive and active players, folding Aces on the flop will be next to impossible. On the other hand, if a nit raises you on the flop in a 3-way pot, it might be time to throw your Aces into the muck. 

Tip #5. Use Pocket Aces To Trap and Protect Your Range with a Short Stack

While cash game stacks are usually too deep to get fancy and trap with pocket Aces, this is not the case in tournament poker. 

In fact, there are many nice spots where trapping with Aces makes a lot of sense and can win you extra chips. 

For example, imagine sitting on a stack of 13 BB in the big blind in the late stages of a poker tournament. 

A capable opponent raises to 2x from the button with a stack of 28 big blinds, and you look down at pocket rockets. 

Going all-in would be the easy play here, but we must consider the fact your opponent may fold quite a few hands, especially if we consider they will be left with just 15 bb if they call and lose. 

Instead, you can call in this spot, representing one of the many other hands you would defend your big blind with, given such good odds.

By having pocket Aces in your calling range, you make it much stronger, and you make it that much more difficult for your opponent to play future streets. 

Similarly, you can apply the same strategy when you open in a late position on stacks of 25-35 bb and get 3-bet by the blinds. 

The 3-bet will be strong some of the time but will also be a pure bluff often, and shoving all-in right here will often result in a fold. 

With the stacks at the depth they are at, calling the 3-bet from time to time with Aces makes a lot of sense and will allow you to trap your unsuspecting opponents. 

Don’t Regret Losing with Pocket Aces

You will often hear players moan about how they always lose with Aces and how they hate the hand. Nevertheless, they continue to play it!

Of course, these players also know that they actually win more often than they lose with AA. Their only mistake is in thinking they should always win with it. 

While pocket Aces is a very strong hand with very high equity, it is not unbeatable, and if you play poker often enough, you will win and lose many huge pots with it. 

Instead of focusing on the results, try to think about how you can play your pocket Aces for maximum value, trick your opponents into putting more money into the pot than they would like to, and get away from the hand when it seems like you are beaten. 

Knowing how to play pocket Aces for value and knowing when to let them go are both important parts of being a good poker player, so make sure you never ignore one at the expense of the other.