Q&A #118: Suited Connectors Vs. Pocket Aces And The Confusion About Limping

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I wanted to clear up two major no-limit hold’em misunderstandings. They are somewhat related.

The first one is described in a comment by Ben Attenborough on recent post Playing No-Limit With A Plan.

Hey Ed, I would just like to say I think this is a very well written article which goes a long way to explaining why often suited connectors are over valued in NLH. The other night I was playing a live game in a casino and another player said he prefered 67suited to pocket aces. He said he had lost thousands with aces but had won loads with 67suited. I countered by suggesting as this was a live game environment and he wasn’t taking notes he couldn’t produce any evidence to prove his assertion. When I look at my poker tracker stats I find I make most money with aces.
Another friend of mine insists that “the pros say jack ten is a better hand than aces.” I strongly disagree with him but he is completely adamant about it. I understand than in really deepstacked games a player who plays aces really badly (by tipping the strength of his hand pre-flop and then refusing to release it post flop) a player could lose money with aces against a good player with J10 in position. But such a player will also show a loss with J10 (unless it is some bizarre player who plays J10 brilliantly but aces like an idiot). What do you think?

While I suppose that it’s theoretically possible for someone to play pocket aces so badly that they actually perform better with JTs (presumably because they’re far less likely to do something horrendously stupid with JTs), in practice I would highly doubt that any such player exists anywhere in the world.

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