Do professionals ever fold pocket aces pre flop?

Answer 1

I'm sure there has been at least a few times a professional has folded pocket aces, but rather than speculate on that let's look at what the questions is likely asking.

Is there ever a reason to fold pocket aces pre-flop in Texas Hold'em?

Pocket aces have a positive expected value, thus in the long-run make money. This holds true for rings games and tournaments. The greater the number of people that enter the pot the lower the chances are that aces will win -- but this is true of any cards. Even with more people in the pot the expected value is positive. Given that it would be a wrong decision to fold aces preflop in a money game.

A tournament holds a special status however. If you call your aces all-in and lose, you are out of the tournament. Though generally you'd take the risk since generally you play enough tournaments that one loss is not such a big deal. However, if this tournament is particularly prestigious or valuable you might want to remain in.

So consider if you are on the button with AA and 3 people before you have moved all in -- and all of them have you covered, and are all tight players, that is their all-in means KK, AA, QQ, or AK. This would mean your chances of winning are relatively small, and a good chance of a tie to split. In this case you could think about not calling...

...then again, winning would propel you so far in the front with a massive chip lead most professionals would probably still call.