Tao of Poker

Falling in Love with pocket Aces... a Penguin's Perspective

I just read a great blog on Poker Penguin about his aces getting cracked.

Here's a bit: "My point was that having high expectations of things you can't control is a dangerous thing. For example, pocket Aces. They're beautiful right? Seeing those two rockets side by side in your sweatly little (virtual) hand is a good thing right? Well yes, as long as you don't get wedded to them. If your expectations are too high (Aces are not invincible, as approximately 50% of all bad beat stories will testify), then you are putting your stack in danger. Not even from a bad beat, just from bullet proof bullets syndrome.

Like good old Kenny Rogers says "ya got to know when to walk away, know when to run". Even with aces, because sometimes the god of poker manages to slip a couple of hungry scorpions into the box with Garfield.

So remember, even a the best starting hand is not a license to print money - it's just an admission ticket to the flop. After that, you're playing with a five card hand and if you don't have one that's likely to be better than your opponents' (and you can have a good idea if it will, because you know three of their cards), then you got to fold. I don't care how pretty they look, or how you had 41.90354343% of the EV pre-flop.

Another analogy (because I like em). Imagine that you're in a dark and smokey bar, and you go home with a near perfect looking member of the gender you're attracted to (this would be your aces). They seem wonderful, they're giving you a hardon just by looking at them (metaphorically speaking). Then the next morning, a bit of light peeks in through the window (this would be the flop), and you see that they are Coyote Ugly. I don't mean that they look like Piper Peekaboo or whatever her name was, I mean that you'd rather chew your arm off than stay near them again."