In Texas Holdem Poker, when a player looks down and sees pocket aces, the player typically does a little leap inside their head.  Many players will tend to do the same thing in Pot Limit Omaha Poker when they look down at pocket aces.  Unfortunately, not all hands that contain aces are strong.  Let’s talk a bit about uncoordinated aces, also known as “naked aces.”

As many people know, the best starting hand in Pot Limit Omaha is A-A-K-K double suited.  This is a powerful hand.  Preflop, this hand is always ahead.  Hands that have aces in them and a couple of coordinated cards are also very power hands.

Where a lot of players get into a trap with aces is when they play aces that are not coordinated or suited.   Players sometimes get into a holdem poker mentality and treat any starting hand with two aces in it like the nuts.  The problem with playing a hand with aces that does not have any backup is that you are relying on only the aces to win the hand.  Otherwise you need to be incredibly lucky.

I was playing an Omaha Poker tournament about a year ago and a player that is known to be an aggressive and loose player raised from middle position.  A player on the button reraised the pot.  The LAG player reraised all-in and was called.  The LAG player showed A-A-4-9 with no suits.  The opponent showed Qh-Jd-10h-9s.  If you run stats on this hand preflop, the aces are only 58% to win.  This is almost a coin flip situation.  The flop fell 8s-10c-2d and the aces all of a sudden went to an underdog.  The player with the wrap had a 57% chance to win at this point.  The wrapped player actually hit his straight and the aces were busted.

Granted, the above scenario required the wrap to hit, but it also demonstrated the need for a player to have backup with their aces. Any random hand with two aces in it is indeed a slight favorite before the flop, but the hand must hit in order to stay ahead.  There will be many times uncoordinated aces will not hit the flop and then fall behind.

How should a player play a hand with uncoordinated aces?  This depends on several factors including position, the type of players at the table, the limits, and of course your stack.  This type of hand is one hand that you may even want to consider limping into a pot with and seeing if you get lucky on the flop.  Limping with aces seems counterintuitive, but Omaha is a drawing game.  Players that pick up a draw on the flop actually are ahead against “naked aces”.   If you are on the button against only limpers and you know that a raise will knock some players out, you may want to put in a raise.  Keep in mind that if you do not hit the flop that you may want to tread very lightly.  Otherwise, you may end up giving your chips away.