How to Play POCKET ACES Like a Pro

You look down at your cards and see pocket aces. It's the best starting hand in poker, but how do you extract maximum value from your opponents?

On this episode, Mike Brady talks with poker pro Gary Blackwood about the best practices for navigating pocket aces across a wide range of scenarios. If you like winning more money at the poker table, then you need to listen now!

Want to dominate every situation at the poker table? Take advantage of Upswing Poker's upcoming Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal! Everything site-wide is 25% off starting on November 25th and running through the end of the month!

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View the episode transcription here.

00:00 Introduction to Playing Pocket Aces

01:04 Optimal Preflop Strategies

04:11 Flop Tactics: Adjusting Based on Board Texture

07:05 Turn Play: When to Stay Aggressive or Slow Down

09:18 Closing Remarks and Black Friday Sale Information

Dive into this episode of the premier poker strategy podcast with host Mike Brady and poker pro Gary Blackwood, where they unravel the secrets of mastering pocket aces—the best starting hand in Texas Hold’em. Whether you call them "bullets," "rockets," or "American Airlines," this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you extract maximum value and avoid costly mistakes.

Starting with preflop play, Gary emphasizes the importance of aggressive strategies like raising and three-betting to build bigger pots. Learn why fast-playing aces is almost always the better option and when slow-playing can be a profitable exception, especially in deep-stack cash games and tournament settings. Moving to postflop play, the discussion covers key adjustments based on board textures, such as when to bet on favorable flops and when to play more passively on dynamic or connected boards that favor your opponent’s range.

On the turn, Gary offers guidance on knowing when to keep your foot on the gas and when to slow down, ensuring you maximize value without overcommitting in tricky spots. With real-world examples and solver-based insights, this episode equips you with the tools to play pocket aces like a pro.

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Don’t miss this comprehensive episode packed with expert advice, practical tips, and insider knowledge. Tune in now to this poker strategy podcast and start dominating the tables with confidence. Subscribe for more episodes that dive deep into every aspect of the game, helping you become the best player you can be.

Episode Transcript

Mike (00:00):
Ready to level up your strategy with pocket aces?
I'm Mike Brady and I'm joined by pokerpro Gary Blackwood to help you play
better with the beststarting hand in hold'em.

Gary (00:10):
That's right, guys. Today we're looking at pocket aces,
whether you call them bullets, rockets,American Airlines, pocket fourteens,
the batteries. We're here to take itstreet by street, looking at preflop,
then flop then turn to help you get maxvalue with the best starting hand in
poker.

Mike (00:26):
The batteries, I don't know if I've heard that one, but I like it.
Before we jump in,
I want to just let you know that nextweek is the biggest sale of the year over
on upswingpoker.com. Everything onthe site, every course, every tool,
and even merch is going to be 25% off.
So if you've considered upgrading yourgame with a course made by a top pro,
or maybe you want to get into theLucid Poker trainer at a discount,

(00:48):
next week is the time to get off thefence. The sale starts on Monday,
November 25th and will runthrough the beginning of December.
Now let's dive into it startingwith the most common street. Gary,
how do you approach playingpocket aces preflop?

Gary (01:04):
If you're playing with deep stacks,
you should almost always playyour aces aggressively pre flop.
You'll win much bigger pots on averagethat way. When the pot is unopened,
always raise. Same goes forwhen you're facing a limp.
When you're facing araise, always three bet.
It might feel tempting to get alittle trappy and just call sometimes,
but you'll win more money moreoften by fast playing your aces.

(01:26):
When you raise and face a three bet,
you should basicallyalways four bet your aces.
Assuming stacks are ahundred big blinds or more,
the pot is not big enough tojustify flat calling. Yes,
you might lose your customer,but for the times they continue,
it is much higher EV.
Some of you listening might be contentto trap preflop with aces when facing a
three bet or even when facing an open,

(01:48):
and sometimes that might workout well. But in the long run,
it's much better to always three betand always four bet your aces in a deep
stack game. You'll just winso much more money long term.

Mike (02:00):
We did an entire episode about when to slow play aces before the flop,
so I recommend goingand listening to that.
But let's touch on it briefly now as well.
When should you slow play aces, Gary,in say, a 100 big blind deep cash game.

Gary (02:15):
So when the pot is already bloated compared to your remaining stack,
you should considerslow playing your aces.
With deep stacks this will most commonlyhappen where you're facing a four bet.
Let's say you're up against a decentplayer who's going to have reasonably
aggressive four bet ranges.
You three bet with aces inposition and then he four bets.
We can pull up this spot in the LucidPoker Trainer and see that the solver

(02:36):
mainly wants to just flatcall in this scenario.
The reason for that is that while youropponent has some good hands like queens
and kings and ace kingand things like that,
they've got a lot more middling handslike ace jack suited, ace queen offsuit,
and king jack suited. You're absolutelycrushing these hands and if you shove,
you'll just force them to fold.
But if you just call and they flop adecent hand like top pair or a draw or

(02:58):
something like that, they're likely tobe forced to put in all their chips.

Mike (03:03):
There just may be one caveat.
If you're up against a notaggressive player, like a very,
very tight player who only will fourbet with extremely strong hands.
Think of the classic old man coffeetype opponent in a live game.
You might be better offjust shoving because they probably just have a very good
hand and they're almost certainly goingto call. But even in that scenario,

(03:23):
you can consider slow playing.When stacks are shorter by the way,
you can consider slow playing acesagainst three bets or even single raises,
and it's for the same reason.
When the pot is going to be very bloatedcompared to your remaining stack,
it can just make sense to slow play youraces because you're not going to have
trouble getting all ofyour money in postflop.

(03:44):
This usually happens when the stack-to-potratio is going to be around two or
lower should you just call. Thishappens a lot in tournaments,
and if you want to learn more about it,
check out that slow playingaces episode we did in the past.
We go over a bunch of different preflopscenarios where you might want to slow
play your aces. Now let'smove on to the next street.

(04:06):
Gary's prepared a handful of tipsfor playing aces on the flop.
What is your first tip?

Gary (04:11):
Okay,
tip number one is to follow up yourpre-flop aggression with a bet on the flop
most of the time.
The key is to think about howour overall range wants to play,
instead of just focusing onyour individual holdings,
which in this case is pocket aces. Lookat the board and decide if it's a great,
a good, an average, or even a badboard for you, and then go from there.

(04:33):
If it's a board that'sreally good for you,
you'll want to bet quite often with yourentire range, including pocket aces.
Boards like ace eight three,king six deuce, jack jack three.
These are good boards for ourrange in almost every scenario,
so we bet our aces, whether it's asingle raised pot, a three bet pot,
or a four bet pot.

Mike (04:53):
I bet you've got an exception plan for tip number two. What is it? Gary:
Tip number two is to playyour aces passively on boards that aren't so great for
you. There are plenty of spots where weactually don't want to c-bet our aces,
and it's important to know what thesespots look like and why we don't want to
see c-bet our aces. For example,
let's say you raise preflopand the big blind defends.

(05:15):
Then you face a check on alow and connected flop like eight five three with two
diamonds. When we look atthis spot in the solver,
we'll see that our aces actually don'tdo that much c-betting on this flop and
on other boards we might evencheck back every single time.
The eight five threeexample is very dynamic,
meaning it can change drasticallydepending on the turn and the river.

(05:37):
It's also a board that very much favorsour opponent with some of those turns
and rivers favoring ouropponent even more. As a result,
we tend to play more passivelywith our best overpairs.
We'll bet our lower overpairslike pocket nines very often,
but that's because pocket nines ismore vulnerable and it benefits from
protection.
Aces don't benefit from protectionbecause they don't need any protection,

(06:00):
so checking with it is moreappealing. Generally speaking,
the more dynamic, themore connected the board,
the more we check with our pocket aces.
If we look at six five threewith two diamonds for example,
we see our aces basically alwayschecking now. It's still a decent hand,
but we certainly don't shovelmoney into the pot with it.
We start with a check and wesee how the hand develops.

(06:22):
If we face another check on a blank turn,then we can start betting for value.
My third tip is to approach itthe same way in three bet pots.
Say cutoff raises, the button reraises,and the cutoff calls. On a low board,
like seven four deuce with two diamonds,
the button should actually notalways bet with pocket aces.
Checking has a few benefits.

(06:43):
It gives your opponent the chance tocatch up with the second best hand.
It also strengthens your checking range,
making you much tougher to play against.
So if your opponent just puts youon ace king and starts blasting,
you're ready to call down.Mike: Great stuff there Gary.
Before we wrap up,
I know you've prepared some advicefor playing pocket aces on the turn.
Take it away.

(07:05):
Gary:
So we're going to use our Lucid solverhere to help us look at these examples.
Let's take a look at button versusbig blind single raised pot scenario.
Say the flop is a really disconnectedking seven deuce rainbow.
We c-bet on the flop very standard.
The big blind calls and on almost everyturn card, we are continuing to bet,
continuing to build a pot.
We've got our foot on the gasaggressively barreling with our aces.

(07:29):
Since our opponent only calledon the flop versus our bet,
they will rarely have a set, they'llrarely have two pair, so we're very,
very likely to have the best hand here.
They also have a lot of hands that willcall like top pair, some turn draws,
so let's keep betting andkeep building the pot. Again,
some of us watching this might get alittle fancy and trap by checking back so

(07:50):
we don't lose our customer on a safe turn.Don't do that on brick turns.
Continue to barrel instead.
You'll just make so much more moneyin the long run by building pots
versus the pairs and drawsin your opponents range.
There is one specific turn card in ourexample that we don't barrel our aces on,
and that's when the king pairs.
It's not a great card forour hands specifically,

(08:12):
so we then start to slowdown with our pocket aces.
That is going to lead menicely onto my next point.
Let's be willing to take our footoff the gas at the right times.
Say we raise the button withaces, the big bind defends,
and we see the flop come downseven six deuce with a flush draw.
As we've just discussed,
we're not going to c-bet our acesevery single time on this type of low

(08:33):
connected flop. But if we do decideto c-bet our aces on the flop,
we need to be prepared to slow down onsome of the lower turn cards that are not
good for our range.If we look at an offsuit four,
which completes some straights,completes some two pairs,
our aces are now rarely going to barrelthe turn, pot controlling is preferred.
If we look at a board-pairing six, almostnever betting. If we look at a jack,

(08:55):
however, our aces are always bettingbecause that's a good card for our range.
We don't need to worry about turnedtwo pairs and turned straights in our
opponent's range, and we getto continue to barrel. Again,
great for us to take thisinformation and use it well.
Let's be sure that we don't overdo itand we still continue to barrel and get
that value on the betterturn cards for our range.

(09:18):
That's all we've got for you on playing pocket aces today.
Go head to the table, putthese tips into practice,
and start making more money with thatbeautiful starting hand. And remember,
the best time of year to invest inyour poker game is almost here with the
25% off site-wide Black Friday /CyberMonday sale happening over on Upswing
Poker. Everything is 25% off. UriPeleg's new Poker Blueprint course,

(09:41):
which is an amazing one for people whodon't like all that fancy terminology and
poker, don't like looking at solvers.
Highly recommend checking outthat course if that describes you.
All of our advanced courses made bytop pros, the Lucid Poker Trainer,
which you've seen throughoutthis episode, the Upswing Lab,
if you want to jump in there and accessthe eight plus years of content made by

(10:01):
super talented playerslike Gary Blackwood.
It's all going to be 25%off starting next week,
so head over to upswingpoker.com. Thatdiscount will automatically apply.
We're back. We'll see you next week.