Given a pair of Aces pre-flop, are you going to fold or are you going to go on. If you are continuing, are you going to call or are you going to raise? These are the questions that you need to answer if you’re going to win any hand at all.

Strong Beginning

If you’re holding a top pair – say for instance AdAd or KcKc –you definitely have a shot at the pot, but only if you hit now and you minimize the number of players that will be contesting the pot. Thus, the right strategy would be to challenge now and to challenge high. The point of such play is to make other players fold as soon as possible so that you can retain your advantage. If you have such a strong beginning but you wait around and you allow your opponents to wait around with you, then you’re going to lose the pot because the flop, the turn and the river may improve a lot of your opponents’ hands. You may get two strong pairs in the end but this will not do any good against a flush that your opponent has been able to complete through the course of the hand.

It Is Definitely Good

If you have cards that are likely to be improved by the board, then by all means, wait for the flop. For instance, you have a Queen and a Ten of diamonds. At this point, it makes sense to wait for the flop which may give you a monster hand (perhaps even a royal flush). If the flop reveals Jd, Kd, and 2d, you now have a chance of hitting either a royal flush with an Ad, a straight flush with a nine 9d. You also have a shot at a straight with 9 of any suit. Good news is, even if you don’t hit, you have a ready flush.

With these types of cards with so many chances of drawing good, you’d be well advised to stay for the river, the turn and the showdown. To get as much from the hand as you can, you can slow down the pace of the game. Instead of raising and re-raising early, you can try merely calling at the earlier stages so that more people will contribute to a bigger pot. Of course, you should also observe how the other players reacted to the flop before you decide on a definite strategy.