What are pocket aces?
Pocket aces are two aces as your hole cards, the best starting hand in Texas Hold’em. Players call them pocket rockets, American Airlines (for the two A’s) or bullets. No hand is a favourite against them before the flop, but they are still only one pair: see where they sit among the rest in the best starting hands.
How often do you get pocket aces?
Once every 221 hands on average. There are 1,326 two-card hands and 6 of them are two aces, so the chance on any hand is 0.45%.
| Hands played | Chance of at least one pair of aces |
|---|---|
| 100 | 36.5% |
| 221 | 63.3% |
| 500 | 89.6% |
| 1,000 | 98.9% |
At a live table dealing about 30 hands an hour, that is roughly one pair of aces every seven hours. When you do hold them at a 6-max table, the chance that one of the five other players holds pocket kings is about 2.4%.
How often do pocket aces win?
85% of the time against one random hand, all in before the flop, and less with every player you add. We ran pocket aces against random hands with the equity calculator’s engine, 300,000 deals for each line, with everyone seeing all five cards:
| Opponents | Aces win |
|---|---|
| 1 | 85.0% |
| 2 | 73.2% |
| 3 | 63.7% |
| 4 | 55.7% |
| 5 | 49.0% |
| 8 | 34.4% |
Against five random hands, pocket aces win less than half the time. That is why aces are raised before the flop: the raise folds out most of those hands. Against one specific hand the picture is narrower:
| Aces against | Aces win (equity) |
|---|---|
| Ace-king offsuit | 93.1% |
| Seven-two offsuit | 88.2% |
| Ace-king suited | 87.9% |
| King-queen suited | 83.0% |
| Pocket deuces | 82.2% |
| Pocket kings | 81.9% |
| Jack-ten suited | 78.9% |
| Six-five suited | 77.5% |
The hands that do best against aces are small suited connectors, not big pairs: they can make straights and flushes that beat one pair without needing an ace. Every matchup averages over every suit combination of both hands; more matchups are in our poker odds guide.
How do you play pocket aces before the flop?
Raise, and re-raise whatever comes before you. In PlusEV’s 6-max cash solver ranges at 100 big blinds, aces fold 0% of the time in all 114 preflop spots. What they do in each kind of spot:
| Situation | What the solver does with aces |
|---|---|
| First in, any seat but the small blind | Raise 100% |
| First in from the small blind | Raise 75.4%, limp 24.6% |
| Facing a raise | 3-bet 100% |
| Facing a raise and a call | Squeeze 100% |
| Facing a 3-bet | 4-bet 93.6%, call 6.4% |
| Facing a 4-bet | All in 48.2%, call 51.8% |
| Facing an all-in | Call 100% |
Each figure is the average over that kind of spot, 1 to 20 spots each. Two of them surprise people. Facing a 4-bet, aces move all in only 48.2% of the time, while pocket kings move all in 97.8% of the time in the same spots. Aces can afford to call because no hand is ahead of them, and calling keeps the 4-bettor’s bluffs in the pot. And against a 3-bet, aces call in only three spots, all with position on a blind: the button against the small blind (43%) and the big blind (29%), and the cutoff against the big blind (24%).
Should you ever slowplay or limp pocket aces?
Almost never before the flop. The solver never just calls a single raise with aces, and from every seat but one it never limps them. The exception is the small blind, where it limps aces 24.6% of the time so that its limps are not all weak hands; our limping guide explains why. Raising to a bigger size with aces is the other common mistake: the solver uses the same size for aces as for every other hand it opens, so the size gives nothing away.
How well do players play pocket aces?
Worse than you might expect. Across PlusEV’s 1M+ recorded training decisions, counting only spots where the solver has one clear answer and weighting every difficulty level equally, players choose the right action with pocket aces 89.3% of the time (12,902 answers from 11,501 players). That ranks aces 111th of the 169 starting hands, from most to least misplayed: better than the median hand (86.5%), but worse than pocket kings (93.8%) and ace-king suited (93.5%).
The data does not record which wrong action was taken. The solver table above shows where aces differ from the obvious play: the spots where they call rather than raise.
How do you play pocket aces after the flop?
This part is standard theory rather than our data. An ace comes on the flop only 11.8% of the time, so most flops leave you with an overpair. On dry boards like K-7-2, bet for value and expect to get paid by top pair. On connected or suited boards, and in pots with two or more callers, one pair is worth less: check more, keep the pot smaller, and be ready to let the hand go when a cautious player suddenly raises big. Pocket aces are a strong hand in a heads-up pot and only a good one in a multiway pot.
Why do pocket aces lose so often?
They don’t, but they lose big pots. Against one random hand, aces lose about 15% of the time, roughly one hand in seven. Against two callers it is about one in four. And the hands that crack aces are often the ones that hit hard, sets, straights and flushes, so the losses are memorable. One reply in the Reddit thread that ranks for how to play aces puts it well: you are not entitled to the pot. Over hundreds of hands aces are by far the most profitable starting hand.
Pocket aces are the best starting hand in poker, dealt once in 221 hands and an 85% favourite against one random hand. Raise them, re-raise with them, never fold them before the flop at 100 big blinds, and play them more carefully as more players join the pot. The PlusEV preflop trainer drills every preflop spot, aces included, until the right answer is automatic.
Quick answers
What are pocket aces called?
Pocket rockets is the best-known nickname. Players also say American Airlines, from the two A's, and bullets.
What are the odds of being dealt pocket aces?
1 in 221, or 0.45% of hands. There are 6 ways to be dealt two aces out of 1,326 possible two-card hands.
How often do pocket aces win?
About 85% of the time against one random hand, all in before the flop, and 49% against five random hands. Against pocket kings, aces win 81.9%.
Should you ever fold pocket aces before the flop?
Not in a cash game at 100 big blinds. In PlusEV's 6-max solver ranges, aces fold 0% of the time in all 114 preflop spots.
Should you limp with pocket aces?
Only from the small blind, and only some of the time: the solver limps aces 24.6% of the time when the pot is folded to the small blind. From every other seat it raises them every time.
What hand has the best chance against pocket aces?
Small suited connectors. Eight-seven suited and six-five suited win about 22% of the time against aces, more than pocket kings (18.1%) or ace-king suited (12.1%).
What are four aces in poker?
Four of a kind in aces, or quad aces: the best four of a kind. Only a straight flush or a royal flush beats it.