Bullets - Hold'em Starting Hand AA

Bullets is a pre flop starting hand giant in the game of Texas Holdem - AA in the hole. It is also known by the names American Airlines and rockets (or pocket rockets) and is statistically the best starting hand in Texas Hold'em. As such the odds of getting dealt it are roughly 1 in every 220 hands.

Bullets - Best Pre Flop Hand in HoldemThe fact that it's so rare and such a good pre flop hand is probably the reason it gets players into such trouble. As big a hand as it is pre flop, it's a tricky one to lay down when the board is being dealt. Unfortunately, there's no prizes for having the best pre flop hand - it's the best holding at the end of the hand that ultimately wins. Ultimately, it's still only a pair, which doesn't rank all that highly in the overall rankings. Whilst it does carry some dangers, pre flop you should be aggressive. You don't want too many players along for the ride. It has frequently played hands like AK, AQ, AJ, KQ dominated and in need of help. Additionally. The more players enter the pot, the less chance you have of winning. Up against one player (which is the ideal situation), it's a firm favorite.

The right way to play Aces?

In truth, there's no right way to play them. Well at least no one single way. A lot depends on who you're playing, how many are already in the hand and what position you're in. If your playing aggressive players, you could slow play, confident that someone will come in with a raise. At the same time, you could min raise in the hope that you'll get a player re-popping. Against more passive players, being too aggressive up front might scare them away, so you might want to build the pot slower. It's always a tricky one, and no one way works every time. Building the pot slower increases the risk the hand doesn't hold up.

There's very much a trade off between risk and reward on this one. The more you encourage players into the pot, the greater the potential rewards - at the same time, the less chance of you winning. Ultimately, the decision you have to make is - do i want to take a little more risk for more reward? If you do, you need to expect to be overturned more often.

Whilst there's many different ways to play the hand - don't forget the objective - to make money. It's wise to put in a raise and build the pot early. At the end of the day, there's always a risk other players will fold. It's a far worse position if your opponents had a hand in which they would have committed far more to the pot than you extracted.

When is it the right time to fold?

Might like any other hand, the key is to fold when you think you're beat. Remember, it is only a pair. You have to ask how much of your stack you want to risk? The problem with aces is that it's a little more tricky to improve. You either need to hit one of the last remaining aces (and they may not even still be live) or hit a flush or straight. The problem with the flush is that there would need to be 4 to the flush on the board so there's limits to what your going to be able to extract from opponents. Making a straight you'll have the same dilemma. Hitting the low end of the straight (.i.e. A-2-3-4-5), you can't be confident an opponent doesn't have the 6. Likewise, with 10-J-Q-K-A, you need to have everything but the A on the board - so it's not exactly the best disguise.

The important thing to remember is that the hand isn't invincible,

Aces against 9's Wins 77% of the time

As you can see from the example above you can see that Aces up against 10-9 suited is winning 77% of the time. Yes, that's a big favorite. It does mean that if the hand played 10 times, the 10-9 would win twice. If we were to add a third player with 33, the aces are only holding up 60% of the time. It's this reason that, we want ideally to limit the number of opponents - perhaps another reason not to slow play.. Don't get married to the hand - it's cheaper to fold and be wrong then go to far and it costs you a big chunk of your stack.

Next Definition : The Button

 
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