Lesson Learned: Folding Pocket Aces

I had a terrible night's sleep last night. I tossed and turned and couldn't get this blog post out of my head. During those three hours of restlessness and stress dreams, I should have gotten out of bed and written it. Instead, I suffered.

I was playing a freeroll tournament yesterday and did something that I've never done before, and never thought that I would/could do. It was a qualifier and the top 30 players in this event qualify for a $1000 freeroll that happens on Saturday.

I was cleaning the house and missed the first hour or so of the tournament. By the time I returned, the blinds had eaten my 1500 in chips down to 220. I doubled up quickly, and doubled up again, and then tripled up. My chips were about average at roughly 3500. I waited and played smart and built my stack up to 15000.

I sat on my stack for a while and watched people get eliminated, bringing me closer and closer to the top 30. The prize is exactly the same whether you finish in 1st or in 30th, but anything other than top 30 earns you nothing.

With about 60 players remaining, I decided that one more win would mean that I could sit out for the rest of the game and still qualify so I played pocket queens against a smaller stack. He pushed all-in preflop and I called his 8,000 or so. He turned over QJ spades. I was dominating, and looking really good. Flop was nothing but one spade hit. Of course the turn and river were spades, and I lost.

I was still in the tournament, but only had about 7500 in chips. With so many players remaining, I was in trouble. I had to really struggle to hang on and finish in the top 30. I won some small pots, but nothing important and my chips hovered around 8500.

With 31 players remaining, I was in 33rd place. The player in 31st was "away" and was folding every hand. The blinds and antes were slowly eating away all his chips. After posting the small blind he had 186 chips left. I knew that the 300 ante would put him all-in next hand and, with luck, someone at his table would knock him out. I had been widdled away to 3100 in chips and could last much longer. At exactly this point, I was dealt AA.

This is the strongest starting hand in poker and one that normally would make me jump for joy. Though very tempted, I noticed that the small and the big blind had 44000 and 36000 in chips. With only one more player to eliminate, they would likely both call no matter what cards they held. I would be risking every chip and would be jeopardizing a qualifying top 30 finish. I knew being eliminated now would mean winning absolutely nothing.

I folded my pocket aces.

I couldn't believe that I had done it. In the next hand at the other table, the player with 186 chips was forced all-in by the ante and his 93 was easily beaten and he was eliminated in 31st position. I was in the money and no matter how I finished I would qualify for Saturday's tournament.

With that player out and my win secured, I went all in with nothing and won. The next hand I was, shockingly, dealt pocket aces and went all-in. The big chip leader called me with 53 unsuited. Flop was KQ5, turn was a 6, and the river was a 3. I was eliminated in 27th place (a few had gone out the hand before). It was a perfect end to the experience since it shows just how vulnerable pocket aces are. It was absolutely the right move to move all-in at this point, but absolutely wrong to move all-in earlier no matter how strong my cards were.

I will never know if my earlier aces would have held up, but it doesn't matter. It would have been stupid to risk everything and possibly finish in 31st position. If I had, I would have walked away with nothing. Folding the strongest staring hand in poker meant that I am now playing for some real money this Saturday.