Published on April 9th, 2007 5:04 pm EST

There are some people that would tell you that you should NEVER fold AA preflop. For the most part, I would agree, however there is one situation where AA should always be folded pre-flop, and that is in a sattelite.

Let's say that you are in a sattelite for a World Series of Poker seat. The top 23 people get seats, and there are 24 people left. You have a stack of 200k. The big stack at the table has 205k. There are several small stacks with 10k, and the blinds are currently 1500-3000.

You wake up with AA and the big stack pushes all-in. Call here? Not a chance. You can fold your way to a seat, you should not be playing ANY hands, as you are in absolutely no danger to be chipped away before everyone else.

Here is a real-world situation where this very situation happened. Let me post the hand history:

PokerStars Game #9328206148: Tournament #46481355, $615+$35 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (1500/3000) - 2007/04/09 - 01:35:58 (ET)
Table '46481355 43' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: THAY3R (18776 in chips)
Seat 2: kidkanada99 (41997 in chips)
Seat 3: Jensen (31362 in chips)
Seat 5: M4ximillioN (14431 in chips)
Seat 6: throwinphins (39308 in chips)
Seat 7: ComeOnPhish (158880 in chips)
Seat 8: Logon66 (73370 in chips)
THAY3R: posts the ante 150
kidkanada99: posts the ante 150
Jensen: posts the ante 150
M4ximillioN: posts the ante 150
throwinphins: posts the ante 150
ComeOnPhish: posts the ante 150
Logon66: posts the ante 150
ComeOnPhish: posts small blind 1500
Logon66: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
THAY3R: folds
kidkanada99: folds
Jensen: folds
M4ximillioN: folds
throwinphins: folds
ComeOnPhish: raises 6000 to 9000
Logon66: raises 64220 to 73220 and is all-in
ComeOnPhish: calls 64220
*** FLOP *** [Qd 8h Jh]
*** TURN *** [Qd 8h Jh] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [Qd 8h Jh Th] [7c]
throwinphins is sitting out
throwinphins has returned
throwinphins is sitting out
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ComeOnPhish: shows [9h Ts] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Logon66: shows [Ah Ac] (a pair of Aces)
throwinphins has returned
throwinphins is sitting out
throwinphins has returned
throwinphins is sitting out
throwinphins has returned
ComeOnPhish collected 147490 from pot
ComeOnPhish is sitting out
ComeOnPhish has returned
ComeOnPhish is sitting out
ComeOnPhish has returned
ComeOnPhish is sitting out
ComeOnPhish has returned
ComeOnPhish is sitting out
ComeOnPhish has returned
throwinphins is sitting out
ComeOnPhish is sitting out
throwinphins has returned
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 147490 | Rake 0
Board [Qd 8h Jh Th 7c]
Seat 1: THAY3R folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: kidkanada99 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Jensen folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: M4ximillioN folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: throwinphins (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: ComeOnPhish (small blind) showed [9h Ts] and won (147490) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 8: Logon66 (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and lost with a pair of Aces

Logon66 has a nice sized stack. One more person out and he has his 10k WSOP seat. He is in absolutely no danger of losing that seat if he folds, however he decides to get all of his chips in with AA. WRONG MOVE. ComeonPhish is looking to knock people out, and even if he loses this hand, he still has a huge stack with no chance of losing his seat.

Terrible move by Logon66. Folding AA is the correct play in this position.

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