There are fewer greater feelings of power, anticipation, and excitement in all of gambling than when a poker player is dealt “pocket rockets” which are more formally known as aces. When you start out with a pair of aces the possibilities are near endless but so too are the potential perils. Pocket aces offer the opportunity to clean the table of chips but also the danger of falling to the temptation of overplaying your hand.
One of the key aspects of poker is positioning and you want to be prudent with your aces. If you are sitting in an early position you don’t want to scare off the players that follow you and if you are sitting in a late position you want to milk the aces for all that you can but also want to scare off other potentially strong hands. A player with two kings, for example, that is sitting in early position may make an aggressive bet that you must answer with power and strength to try and scare him off from getting that potential third king or building other high percentage hands.
Another factor to consider is what happens after the flop when you have a far better idea of just how valuable those aces really are. If you didn’t get much help on the flop it still isn’t time to panic as you are still holding a pair of aces, keep in mind, and powerful combinations can still be made.
Playing aces is like managing a fortune with prudence. You don’t
want to get reckless and yet you also want to make money!