My last article addressed how to play aces in position for maximum value. This article addresses how to play aces out of position; still highly profitable, but harder to negotiate than when playing in position. Let’s look at this from the perspective of 1st or 2nd position in a full 6-max game. UTG we raise to our normal 3x-4x. At this point, two possibilities are significant to us.
The first scenario is that we get one or more smooth calls. In this situation, playing aces out of position is simply going to be an exercise in reading the texture of the board and deciding whether we are ahead of the range we assign to our opponents. We will almost always make a speculative bet on the flop, but we will often need to reevaluate if we don’t get a fold. For example, if the flop comes 7s8sJc, and our c bet is flat called, we will need to see the turn to determine whether we want to continue with the hand. If we are raised on the flop, we have to determine whether we shouldn’t just dump our aces. But that is all opponent-specific, and we won’t get too much into that. Rather, let’s discuss what happens when our open raise get’s reraised by someone in position against us.
Being reraised when we hold bullets is an excellent, though sometimes tricky situation. When we are facing a reraise, we have two distinctly different options. We can either re-reraise (4-bet) and lose our action frequently, or we can smooth call, opening ourselves up to a greater degree of risk in hopes for a greater reward. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each choice and try to reason out when each is correct.
If the opponent has a normal 100 BB stack size, and is fairly aggressive in position, we can probably smooth call. Our best line will be to check-raise most flops all in. This play lends itself well to 80-120 BB opponents, because by the time 15 BB’s are put in preflop and we check the flop, a bet from our opponent will cost another 20 BB+. This leaves them 45-80 BB typically. When we raise all in, the villain is priced in to call with a wide range of hands that we are beating, and we make a nice profit over the long run, allowing our opponent to do almost all the work in the hand.
Our other option is to four-bet preflop. This is certainly appropriate when our opponent is shortstacked, as he is automatically priced into a call. There is simply no utility in allowing a shortstack to see a flop. The other situation in which we may want to reraise is when the effective stacks are deep. You simply can’t be comfortable flat calling when you have more than 150 BB’s at stake, because you can’t end the action on the flop in most scenarios, and when you do, you are usually crushed. Put another way, if the money that goes in preflop is small compared to stack sizes, excessive action post-flop usually indicates that our one pair is beaten. Therefore, we need to price our opponent out of drawing hands, and expand the size of the pot preflop. Expanding the pot preflop takes much of the pot control away from the opponent who has position on us for the flop and the other two streets. When making a bet or a raise means pot commitment, our aces have much more equity against his range when he puts in money.
Hopefully these two articles are helpful in allowing you to maximize your gains both in and out of position with pocket rockets.