A useful tool when conditions are right

What is the calling card (pun intended) of the weak no-limit hold'em player? My answer would be letting the opponent draw cheaply - or for free - and then paying off big-time when the opponent gets lucky. Many people would agree with this, including a lot of poker writers. Generally, slow-playing pocket aces gets chastised in print, to the extent that slow-players of this hand often are derided in poker literature. I admit that I myself do not do a lot of slow-playing, but there is a big difference between infrequent and never. My opinion is, there are some spots in which slow-playing aces is at least a viable alternative to consider, and there are a few situations in which it may well be the superior play.

Aces can be a candidate for slow-playing both before and after the flop. There is a sound technical reason for this. Aces, being a pair of the highest-ranking card, cannot encounter an overcard, so they are outdrawn less often than any other hand preflop, and also are not very easy to outrun after the flop. Failing to bet or raise is therefore not penalized as often as with other pocket pairs. I will discuss preflop play in this column.

Few people slow-play aces when someone has already entered the pot in front of them. The most frequent time that people limp in with aces is when they are the opener, especially when under the gun. Limping in when opening from early position is so common that opponents will be wary of you when you just call from up front. I open-limp with aces less often than I open-raise, but am still prone to using this play. It fits my general poker philosophy of varying how I play the nuts. I hardly ever limp with aces if someone is already in the pot. I am not above limping when I am the first player in even when having late position. You may recall a hand with which I opened from the button in the 2006 World Series of Poker with a very short stack. Neither blind raised, yet I still managed to triple up on the hand. I also use this play on occasion when in the small blind. Open-limping from the small blind with aces and then reraising the big blind if he gets frisky is a good way to let the big blind know that a limp is not a white flag that gives him a license to steal. One play I have seen that I never use - and think is idiotic - is failing to raise one or more limpers when in the big blind. Deceptive, yes; profitable, no.

With pocket aces when facing a raise, the normal play is to reraise. Make sure that your reraise is big enough. I like to at least triple the total bet; for example, with $50-$100 blinds, if someone made it $300 to go, I would make the total bet at least $900, and probably a little more. An even grand is a good number. If I am out of position, as in one of the blinds, I would make it at least four times the total bet (here, $1,200).

Do I ever slow-play aces when facing a raise? Yes, but only if conditions are ideal. Here are all of the criteria that must be met:

1. I am likely to be heads up. It is dangerous to let even a single player see the flop when you could have reraised; it is too risky to let multiple players in.

2. I have position on the preflop raiser. Then, I have a better chance of making money. He probably will commit himself to the pot on the flop. If he checks and I bet (I might check it back), he will not know if I have a real hand or am trying to prey on the weakness he showed.

3. The opponent is aggressive enough to make a continuation bet. The main point to slow-playing is to let your opponent retain the initiative on the flop, to get his whole stack committed. But if he does not bet the flop unless he hits, you are not making extra money often enough to justify the risk of slow-playing.

4. The money ratio of my stack size to the raise size has to be right. If the money is shallow, you probably will get called if you reraise all in, so that is likely your most effective action. For example, with $50-$100 blinds, if someone opens for $300 and all you have is $1,000, you should move in and expect to get called. If the money is too deep, you run the risk of losing a gigantic amount if he outflops your aces. I think the ideal amount is enough to move all in on a continuation bet without overbetting the pot size by more than a slight amount. If you cannot get all in on the flop without making a gigantic raise, don't slow-play. Let's use our $50-$100 blinds example. The opponent open-raises for $300 and you call from the button with pocket aces. There is now $750 in the pot. When the flop comes down, he makes a continuation bet of $425. After your "call" (just hypothetical, to count the pot size the proper way), the pot size is now $1,600. You would be pleased after the $300 call to have $1,400 to $2,000 remaining that would be used to move all in. This means that you wanted to have $2,000 to $2,600 at the start of the hand, when you faced that $300 open-raise. So, the approximate ideal amount is roughly six to eight times the amount of the preflop raise to effectively use a slow-play.

My favorite situation to slow-play pocket aces preflop is when I have been reraised by one of the blinds after I have made an open-raise. This reraise from out of position is almost always kings, queens, or A-K, so I have both position and confidence in reading where I stand on most of the flops. This is a gambling situation to relish.

As you see, I believe that slow-playing pocket aces preflop, far from being a no-no, is a useful tool when conditions are right. Besides being very effective in certain situations, it provides a nice variety to your no-limit hold'em game, giving it a certain amount of unpredictability that keeps the opposition off balance.