Suckouts

How is it possible to have a losing percentage with AA?

I’m not sure what you mean by “losing percentage,” but here’s a thread where we explored how AA could have the worst preflop equity of the nine hands on the table: AA, the worst hand of the entire table :)

Simply put, AA is great heads-up, not so good when there are lots of hands drawing to straights and flushes.

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Heads-up AA should win close to 85% however against a full ring it only wins about 31%.

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10 players at a table, all call the big blind. You have pocket aces. Another player at the table has the other two aces. The other 8 players at the table each have a different pair.

good luck

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It would be possible (but not probable) to lose more hands with AA than you win. It is also possible to have a negative winrate with AA but this is fixable. Your wins/losses depend on how you play the hand. Big pairs are powerful heads-up because 1 on 1, the winning hand is most often a 1-pair hand or high-card. As soon as you add additional players to the mix, the value of 1 pair decreases. When you have 3+ people seeing a flop and continuing to the turn and river, a 1 pair hand is no longer considered to be very strong on most boards.

Big pocket pairs are not easy to play multiway. Many people give away their holdings preflop by only raising QQ+, AK. Even bad opponents can play pretty well against someone who is announcing what their hand is. Another thing people do is overvalue their hand postflop. Just because it was a monster before the flop doesn’t mean it still is once those 3 community cards are dealt. Players need to pay attention to what the board brings to the party and not just to their own hand as if it were in a vacuum. Good players are capable of laying down overpairs when the situation warrants it. No one likes doing it but success in poker demands it from us.

If you practice playing these hands, I’m sure you will turn your winning % around. Be realistic about what you can expect from the hand and you’ll do fine. The average winning player makes about 11BB per hand he’s dealt them. I think most people assume it would be a lot more than that but it isn’t. Its the best starting hand in poker but it isn’t invulnerable. You cannot allow yourself to lose huge pots with 1 pair hands, no matter how pretty and exciting that pair was when you were dealt it. Be disciplined with them and you’ll win with them in the long run.

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I see this so often. A lot of people in this world simply lack situational awareness, in general. Becoming aware of what’s going on beyond “Hey, my cards are pretty good” is a key component that elevates a novice player to intermediate skill. In lieu of developing that ability, one should stick to video poker at the bar or casino.

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Why bad-beats are a gift: Why Bad Beats are a Poker Player's Greatest Gift - Upswing Poker

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variance