Poker: The Danger of Suited Aces

Most players like to play suited aces whenever they can. These hands can give you the nut flush, which is often a very strong hand. Holding a hand like this against another flush can be a very profitable situation. It also provides the opportunity to hit two pair when another player may have A-strong kicker.

But suited aces can be a dangerous hand to play, especially if you’re not good at letting go of top pair.
Suited aces that are suited with a king, queen or jack are good hands that can be played with a raise, whether it’s from you or from another player. But when the suited ace has a small card to go along with it you essentially have to hit your flush or two pair for it to put you into a position of dominance. When we pair the ace we often find ourselves chasing three outs, hoping to spike two pair on the turn or river because we know that someone likely has us out-kicked.

Suited aces with a 5, 4, 3 or 2 provide a bit more value because they have wheel straight possibilities, but the increased value isn’t a lot. These hands should only be played in a late position if there were no raises, or in a short table situation where the hand has more value to begin with.

Try not to call too many raises pre-flop with suited aces because you’ll often have to forfeit what you’ve paid when the flop doesn’t give you any flush opportunities. They may look like strong hands, but the number of times that these hands will hit for a flush is not enough to warrant calling big raises pre-flop.