This question is one of the toughest in poker. What is the value of your hand and do you over value your hand? My two part answer is a little tricky so button your seat belts. I had a discussion the other night and it got my thinking, there was three of us and the question came up could you fold pocket aces pre flop on the bubble of a monster tournament like the main event. There was a mixture of answers so here are some of the arguments. The answers where no way, i could, and the best one well if it was for all my chips. Here is the skinny, I think that i could lay down aces pre flop for certain circumstances. Here they are, another player and i have a huge chip lead and there is plenty of time left like for example we play three days of poker and now on the bubble for money. Win or lose i dont need to risk it there because there is

plenty of enough time for me to make the money. On the other hand, you have aces the best starting hand in poker i should try to stay in the tournament and i have to try to make the final table so i need to push with the best hand. I agree with these answers but the one i would think of is, If i am short stack i need to push if i have a monster chip lead i can fold. The problem with a lot of poker players my self included is the value we put on our hand. Some of us think well have the best hand when i pushed. There is no way that i can lay a hand down there is no way he hit a flush on the river. This is where people lose their money they just hope they have the best they dont think. I give you one example happened to me the other night. The blinds are 1 and 2 dollars. Pre flop the bets went 1 2 call call raise 14 dollars and i re raise to 30 dollars i get the 14 dollar man to call. the flop queen hearts 8 spades 7 diamonds. I make it 40 dollars on the flop i get a call. The turn is 3 of hearts i push all in for 30 dollars and the player calls going into the river. The river is a 6 spades. i was all in on the turn. The player immediatly turns over a set of 6s. There was a raise pre flop with 6s i reraised him with aces and he calls all the way to river with 3 over cards on the board. Cleary he over valued his hand and thought of was just hoping i did not have a pair and just had ace high lol. This is a story i tell you not so the player is put down just the over value he had. He said well i didnt know if you had a pair. True story, i was like i bet the whole way out i re raised you pre flop just say well i was hoping you didnt have a pair and that i was feeling lucky to hit a 2 outer on the river. So i leave you with this tought how much do you value your hand? Do you value it enough to make the money on the bubble of the worlds big tournament. That is when you know you made a good decision in the game of poker.

may you have big pots,
diesel@learnpokerfromthejoes.com