Suited Aces - Part II

In Part I of this series, I mentioned that suited aces come in three flavors. The best suited aces are those in which the other card is big - king, queen, jack, or 10. These hands, especially suited A-K and A-Q, are premium holdings. The second flavor contains a medium-sized card - 9, 8, 7, or 6. The third flavor contains a small card - 5, 4, 3, or 2. With these hands, you are relying primarily on the potential to make a flush or straight.

I will discuss all three types in a lot more detail in later columns, but in this column, I will examine an instructive hand from actual play. This hand occurred in the recent Bellagio $15,000 buy-in tournament. Bellagio currently gives players a starting stack of three times their buy-in, so everyone started with 45,000 in chips. With opening-level blinds at 50-100, this was definitely super deep-stack poker. I was involved in this hand. While I can find some justification for all of the plays that were made, I have to admit that a lot of the plays were at least somewhat questionable. I will try to re-create the action as it occurred, although some of the chip amounts may be a little off.

Once I have described the play of the entire hand, I will discuss each individual play. I won a few small pots and had more than 50,000 in my stack. I was dealt the 5 5. The under-the-gun player limped, and I also limped from early position. There was another limper, and then someone raised to 500. Jimmy Fricke, the button, called 500 cold. I hadn't played with him enough to know his style at all, but he is young, probably aggressive, and has had a lot of success (he finished second to Gus Hansen in the Aussie Millions last year). The first limper folded, and the remaining two of us called, making a pot of more than 2,000.

The flop was the Q 8 5. I decided to lead out for 1,500. The other limper and the raiser folded, but Jimmy raised to 4,000. I reraised to 9,000. He called. The turn was the J. I led out for 12,000 into a pot that was now around 20,000. Jimmy raised all in for another 17,000. I called. He turned over the A 7, the nut flush. (You knew he had that hand, right? Of course you did. This is a series about suited aces.) I made a full house on the river and won a huge pot, while simultaneously knocking a tough player out of the tournament.

The plays:

My early-position limp with fives is fairly automatic. There already had been a limper, so even those players, like Chris Ferguson, who state that you never should limp if you are first in, would limp.

Jimmy's cold-call from the button with A-7 suited is a little questionable. It is a speculative hand, and with very deep stacks, it is OK to speculate - if he were guaranteed that none of the limpers would reraise. That danger, combined with the dubious value of A-7, makes folding a reasonable alternative.

I flop bottom set and lead out. I have two choices here. One is to lead, and the other is to check with the intention of raising. I often like checking to the raiser in these spots, but I don't want to give everyone a free card. This is one of those boards that any spade or any card between the queen and the 8 may make someone a big hand; however, I think trying for a check-raise is a reasonable alternative.

Jimmy's semibluff raise with an ace-high flush draw is probably a mistake. There is no guarantee that an ace will be good. (I might be betting with A-Q, although I probably would have raised with that hand preflop.) I think the best play is to try to make the flush as cheaply as possible. The possibility that I might fold, or call and then check on the turn, giving him a free card, makes his play somewhat reasonable. The problem is that I might reraise, and that would leave him in a very bad spot. He doesn't want to fold the nut-flush draw, but he will probably not be getting the right price to call a bet on the turn if a spade doesn't come. I would again classify his play as reasonable, but maybe not the best choice.

When I reraised, I thought his most likely hand was A-Q. I expect that he would have reraised before the flop with Q-Q. The boardcards make two pair impossible, so a set of eights is the only hand I really have to be afraid of. I have to admit that I didn't really consider the flush draw to be that likely. (This was an unforgiveable mistake on my part.) If I thought it was more of a possibility, I might have flat-called his raise and bet the turn if no spade came. I also might have reraised a little more to make it tougher for him to call.

Jimmy's call of my reraise is certainly reasonable. He is getting pot odds of more than 3-1, and has implied odds on top of that. It might appear that he has two chances to hit one of nine spades, but if a blank comes on the turn, I will bet enough to make it wrong to call and see the river with a draw. It is also probable that any spade that pairs the board will fill me up. In this case, I think he made the right decision, but it certainly is not as clear as it would be if he were guaranteed to see all the cards.

My bet on the turn was a major blunder. If I had read him correctly, I would have checked and folded, unless his bet was so small that I was getting the right price to call. By now, I did think it was possible that he had a flush, but I still thought that A-Q or K-Q was much more likely. Since his non-queen might have been a spade, I didn't want to let him have a free card. This is one of those situations in which knowing your opponent makes a huge difference. As it was, I didn't know him and made a hopeless read. If my read had been right, my bet would have been correct.

Jimmy's move all in for his final 17,000 is pretty clearly correct. I guess he could just call and escape with some chips if the board paired, while still being a big favorite to get the rest of my chips on the river. I don't think I could escape on the river unless a fourth spade came, and even then, I would have called a modest bet.

My call of his all-in bet is mathematically correct even if I am absolutely sure that he has a flush. It would be wrong only if he had a higher set, and that seemed extremely unlikely.

I think this is a very instructive hand. Both Jimmy and I had a lot of reasonable alternative plays. Our decisions were predicated on both the mathematics of each situation and our reads of the other guy's hand. I can't say that I'm pleased with my play, especially my bet on the turn, but I loved the final result. I will continue discussing hands involving suited aces for a few more columns, and then I will try to draw some conclusions and make some recommendations.

Steve "Zee" Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on Full Tilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A in New York City - Nice Guy Eddie's on Houston and Doc Holliday's on 9th Street.