Suited Aces - Part VI

As I mentioned in the last column in this series, there are several factors involved in playing suited aces. They are:

• Quality of the kicker
• Position
• Stack size
• Action prior to you
• Your table image
• Composition of your table

One often hears players talk about the importance of position. All charts of playable hands will have some way to distinguish those few that are playable from under the gun, with the worst position, from the much larger list of those that are playable from the button, with the best position. It is almost impossible to emphasize strongly enough or often enough how crucial it really is. The profitability of any hand increases as your position becomes better. It is not uncommon for the same hand to be a loser if played from early position, but a winner from late position. Why is good position so beneficial?

The chance that you have the best hand is increased. If a hand rates to be better than one unknown hand 70 percent of the time, it will run into a better hand quite often as the number of unknown hands increases. For example, it will be the best hand against two players only half the time. Against four players, it will be the best only a quarter of the time. Against eight players, it will be the best slightly less than a miniscule 6 percent of the time.

You will make better decisions when you act after your opponents, and this will increase your equity. This means that you will win more or lose less with any hand by acting last. This is due to the fact that you will make better decisions when you have seen what your opponents did before you act. You may be able to fold without putting any money into the pot. For example, suppose that an under-the-gun player raises, a second player reraises, and a third player with a large stack moves all in; it is definitely right to fold A-K suited or queens, and probably right to fold kings. In the middle of a hand, only the last player to act can decide if he will allow a free card to be dealt. If you make the nuts on the river with good position, you will always know when to bet. If you are first to act, you must decide between betting out and trying for a check-raise. Sometimes, you will make the wrong decision. Obviously, if you are last, you will bet after a check or raise after a bet.

Let's look at a sample hand. Let's see how it plays from various positions while keeping all of the other factors constant. A-6 suited plays the worst of the suited aces (kicker quality). The 6 is the lowest kicker that you can have without the ability to make a wheel (ace to 5 straight), using three cards from the board. Yes, you will do well when all in preflop against A-2 suited, winning about 57 percent of the time (including its share of the ties). But in reality, you won't know that your opponent has such a bad kicker, so you won't win much on your winners, but might lose a lot when he hits a straight. In any case, the quality of your kicker is low. This makes A-6 suited a speculative hand. That is to say, it is a hand with which you want to see a cheap flop and have many opponents.

For this example, assume that the blinds are 100-200 and that everyone has around 20,000 in chips (deep stack size with M of 67, or 100 big blinds). This stack size is typical of the first level of big tournaments. It is also common in the middle stages of cash games; players will usually buy in for $10,000 to $20,000, and as some players go broke and rebuy, the average stack will often be in this zone.

There is one limper ahead of you (prior action). You have played only two hands in the first hour or so. You raised preflop with both of them and got no callers. While you can't be sure of how you are perceived, you assume that your opponents will think of you as being tight and aggressive (your table image). The table is nine-handed. You recognize three tough pros. One is two seats in front of you and one is two seats behind you. The third is known for being extremely aggressive, and he is three seats ahead of you (to your right). The player to your immediate right seems loose and passive. He is the limper. The player to your immediate left seems fairly tight, but also passive. The others are unknown to you (table composition). This is a superficial look at the other factors affecting the way that A-6 suited should be played. Hopefully, you would develop a much deeper understanding of these factors than my summary version. For the rest of this column, I want to look at how the hand should be played from various positions before the flop.

Bad position: As you already know, the loose-passive player has limped. In this case, he is under the gun and you are next to act. The proper play is to fold. You have the entire field behind you. There is a reasonable chance that someone will raise behind you. This might be a pure raise based on a strong hand or a pressure raise with a mediocre hand that's designed to punish the limpers. This will result in your playing a weak hand out of position against an aggressive opponent or forfeiting the money you put in to limp. I know that there are a lot of players who would limp here, but I think the limp is wrong. If you were guaranteed a few more callers and no raiser, it would be fine, but there is just too much chance of a raise. You also should note that an under-the-gun limper, even a loose-passive one, may decide to limp with aces.

Mediocre position: Three players fold, then the loose-passive player to your right limps. Now what? Anything could be right, and the equity difference, whatever you choose, is probably small. It is hard to criticize folding for the same reasons you did with bad position. Calling now is slightly better, since the three folded players can't raise. Also, there is less chance that the limper has a big hand, since players are more likely to try to trap from early position. On the other hand, middle-position limpers tend to be relatively weak, and this may provoke a raise from someone. Lastly, it is OK to raise. You have a good table image and a reasonable chance of isolating against a loose-passive player who is out of position. I lean slightly toward raising. I would make a small to average-size raise (two-and-a-half to three big blinds), and I expect that nearly all of the aggressive pros like Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu would raise.

Good position: Now, let's assume that you are on the button and the limper is in the cutoff seat. Now it is clear to raise. You have a good image and great position. I would raise a lot - say, three and a half times the big blind - to put maximum pressure on the blinds. I don't want to make it too easy for the big blind to call with a hand like 10-8 suited. This type of hand will play well against my hand, although being out of position will make it more difficult for him to make the right decisions.

Small blind: This is a somewhat artificial situation. It is unusual for a player to limp in from the button after everyone has folded. My gut feeling is that this is a suspicious play, and I suspect that he might have a very good hand. My hand is too good to fold, and as much as I would like to raise to freeze out the big blind, my bad post-flop position and some worries about that suspicious button limp stop me. I would just complete (call the half-bet).

Big blind: Strangely enough, this situation is more common than you might think. Everyone folds to the small blind, and he limps. This is one of those many situations in which it is crucial to know your opponent. A good player will have a wide range of hands here. He will often limp with a reasonable hand. If he raised all of his good hands, you'd know to raise his completion automatically. The good player wants to protect himself from this automatic raise. Against a good player, it is close between checking your option and raising. I lean toward the raise, since my hand is reasonable, my image is good, and my position is fine. A raise is automatic against a very straightforward player, who'd always raise with his good hands. Against an overly tricky player, it is right to call. He'll raise with his weak hands, but limp with his strong ones to try to trap you.

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 - Nice Guy Eddie's on Houston and Doc Holliday's on 9th Street - in New York City.