Regardless of the position you sit at the poker table (whether you are at home, the World Series of Poker or the World Poker Tour) when you look down at two aces, you know this is time to increase the size of your custom poker chip stack! Wherever you are sitting, you simply must raise with a fairly large sum of customized poker chips. You must never give any free flops when you have the rockets, whether you are playing your friends or amongst a group of poker stars.

Many perilously think it a good idea to limp in and slow-play their aces but this is a sure way to lose chunks of your custom poker chip stack on a regular basis. This is especially true if you are sitting in early position at the poker table in texas holdem. Imagine calling with your custom poker chips, only to see five other players limping in after you. There are then endless possibilities after the flop as the limpers could have hit two pairs, straight draws, flush draws etc. A nice raise of custom poker chips early on would have pushed the poker players out of the hand if they had rags and would have meant that you would only have had to beat one or two players (with much higher odds of doing so).

The main aim of the raise of custom poker chips is to limit the field of players for that poker hand. Once the flop comes out, you should be accustomed to leading at the pot again with another substantial bet of custom poker chips. All you should be afraid of are flops such as King, Queen, Ten. Three big connecting cards creates the possibility of a straight but more likely the possibility of someone having two pair. You wouldn’t want to lead out with a large bet of custom poker chips in this scenario because it is unlikely you will ever see them come back! Similarly, why risk a ton of custom poker chips if there is a highish pair on the board (it is possible and likely that someone has made trips if they come out firing before you).

You must use common sense though. If lower connecting cards popped out, you must consider whether the cards needed to complete the straight or two pair combination are likely to be in your opponents’ hands. Remember, they must have relatively good poker hands for them to call your pre-flop raise and risk some of their custom poker chips stack!