There is no argument that, out of all the starting hands you can receive in poker, pocket aces is statistically the best. Unfortunately, there will be many times when you aren’t the one holding the pocket aces and must find a way to crack them. But if you’re going to attempt to beat pocket aces, you have to keep several things in mind.
The first thing is putting an opponent with pocket aces. This is next to impossible with loose/aggressive players and maniacs, but it is very possible when you’re up against a rock who has just raised from early position. In this scenario, you can almost be assured that they have pocket aces. Once you’ve identified this, you’ll need to keep one thing in mind when trying to crack aces: win big or get out of the hand cheap.
When going up against pocket aces, chances are that your hand will have less than a 20% chance of winning over 5 streets. With this being the case, you want to see flops, turns, and rivers as cheaply as possible while trying to put together a hand that can win big. Make sure you are going up against a rock who is willing to bet big with their pocket aces as well if you want to win major chips.
Once you know this, you’ll need to recognize the hands which can win big. Small pocket pairs, and suited connectors are definitely the best hands to crack aces with since they go under the radar and work well on weak boards. For instance, pocket 3’s on a board of 4h-3s-9d are going to be good since an opponent with pocket aces will likely still bet big in this scenario.
On the other hand, stay away from using hands such as K-Q and J-10 to crack aces since they’re only good on boards where you’re highly unlikely to make a big profit because other players will fold on these boards.
