Possibly one of the most coveted hands in poker, pocket aces, or pocket rockets as they are often called, are a new players dream and an experienced players nightmare.
Sit around any table long enough and you will hear tales of woe about how someone had their aces cracked. Statistically you will only get this hand one out of every 200 hands or so, so if they get beaten, it leaves a mark similar to a bad breakup, and you will play aces cautiously for a long time to come.
Never fear though, there are ways to make money off of pocket rockets.
There are two main strategies that you should work with when playing rockets: Slow Play and All In Pre Flop. The object of poker is to get the maximum profit out of your hand, so the question really becomes "which method is more profitable?"
Slow Play
When you slow play, you are representing to the other players that you have a marginal hand that you are hoping will pay off on the flop, turn, or river. They will have a tendency to call you or raise, and in the ideal poker world you end the hand with half of everybody's stack.
Enter the real world... there are a couple of things that could go wrong with a slow play. The first thing is that although you have pocket aces, even a set of two's beats you, or two pair, so the more you slow play and draw other players into the pot, the greater chance of someone hitting their card and cracking your precious gold. The second is that if you don't really improve after the flop, you're fair game for someone to come over the top and bluff you. Or they could raise all in.
All In with Aces
There are two things that can happen when you go all in pre flop: someone calls or everyone folds, which means you snake the blinds. Now assuming someone calls, it will be tough to beat pocket aces, but it's not impossible and you can't start crying if someone gets two pair or three of a kind, although ideally you get your third ace. If everyone folds then you limit the profit to just the blinds but you limit your risk too.
As with most poker hands, there is no hard and fast rule for playing aces. It depends on the table, the players, the blinds, and your mental game. It's not an easy hand to play, but played well you can put yourself in a solid position for the remainder of your stay at the table.
