Pair of Aces Heads Up

[DaveduFresne]

Here is a scenario where I lose a lot of money. I raise preflop with pocket Aces and get one caller. The flop is nothing frightening as in QJ10 of a diamonds for example, just your regular rags with maybe one big card say J67 for example.

I bet the pot, my opponent reraises me, and I go all in. Almost always, my opponent shows me a set.

Is this situation avoidable at all assuming chip stacks of both 100 BB's? Or should I just chalk it up to bad luck when it happens?

It seems to me that generally, there are only two times when going all in with aces is profitable. One is preflop obviously. The second is when my opponent is in earlier position than I am, has raised preflop, I reraise him, he just calls, and the flop comes low cards. Then going all in usually gets called by Queens or Kings. Otherwise, I seem to be losing money with them going all in on the flop.

Any tips anyone can give me?

Thanks,

David

[Logik]

I hate to answer with the classic 'it depends' response, but it depends.

It depends on who you're playing. Are you playing an absolute rock, or someone who's really loose in their calling standards? What is YOUR table image?

If you are seen as tight and you get called by someone who is tight:
-They won't try to push you off your overpair
-If they bet heavily into you, they probably have you beat, or have KK or QQ in this particular situation
-Would a tight player who knows that you yourself are tight call with AJ preflop in the first place, and bet their TPTK that heavily? No.

If you are seen as tight and they are loose:
-Call the all-in, they probably put you on a missed AK or something and are trying to bully you out.

If you are seen as loose and they are loose:
-Call the all-in, you're probably way ahead of their AJ.

If you are seen as loose and they are tight:
-He has a made hand, same as the first situation. However in this case the tightie might call preflop with AJs because if he thinks you're loose then he might think he has the best hand.


Feel free to comment on this, but personally for me in that position it's all read dependent and table image too.

[DaveduFresne]

Thank you, good points.

I am fairly tight, and although I am somewhat aggressive, I don't think you can really categorize me as tight aggressive. However, I am aggressive enough that someone might initially reraise me thinking I had a missed AK.

Of course I would be able to fold my Aces to a rock in this situation.

I should have specified I meant just against an average player who is not remarkably tight or loose, and is not a frequent enough player for you to know exactly how they play in every situation.

I obviously know against a loose player its an easy call and a rock its an easy fold. But what about moderate players?

Any other insights?

Thanks,

David

[Sobolous]

against anything other than a player i have pegged as very loose, i'm dropping here. i've found the situations in which you are facing a smaller overpair to be pretty rare here (especially in B&M games). i will see any PP to the flop up to 5X the bb in the hopes that i catch this situation with 666, 333 etc.