Card Player Pro

In a recent video for Card Player Pro, I reviewed heads-up hands submitted by Card Player Pro members and commented on their play. For this Card Player column, I’ve decided to recap one of these hand reviews that I believe highlights an important concept missed by many low-stakes players, which is: Ace high is often your friend (and the best hand).

In the hand in question, our member, a $50 heads-up no-limit hold’em player, was dealt the A Q on the button, and made a normal raise to $1.50. Our opponent, an unknown regular in this game, reraised to a fairly normal $5.50, and we called. I think it’s close between calling and reraising again here, but early in a match, with no real read on how much an opponent reraises, I prefer flat-calling and playing a flop in position.

The flop came J 7 4, and our opponent led out for $6.50. At this point, our member commented: “My plan was to call this bet and take the pot away on a future street,” using what poker players commonly refer to as a “float” play (calling a bet in position with a weak hand, planning to bluff on a future street). This is the crux of what I want to discuss, as I believe it’s a mistake that many players often make when they think that they need to “bluff” with ace high.

On a board of J-7-4 rainbow, our A-Q is going to be the best hand well over 50 percent of the time! If we think of the hands he’s reraising us with preflop, his range probably doesn’t contain many 4-X or 7-X hands, and even if it does, that means that he’ll also have tons of hands like Q-10, 9-8, A-5, and so on — all of which we beat! I think it’s a common gut reaction for players to say, “Well, I don’t have a pair, so I need to bluff.” But in this instance, we’re actually going to have the best hand a pretty sizeable portion of the time. This is where I disagree with our member about calling our opponent’s bet to “take it away.” I think we should call because, a majority of the time, we have the best hand.

If you’re still a bit confused about this, think of what you would do if you had 7-6 suited on this board. I think many players would instantly say, “Oh, I’d call.” They’d figure their pair of sevens is the best hand. And while they’d be right, our A-Q and a pair of sevens here are effectively the same hand, in that we beat all of his continuation-bet bluffs, and are currently behind his big hands. If you’d call here with 7-6, I’d give some serious thought to calling with your strong ace-high hands, as well.

The turn brought the 3, and our opponent checked. Our member decided to make a big bet of $17 into a pot of $24, following through with his take-it-away plan. While I don’t think betting is the worst option here, since we protect ourselves against his random-pair outs, I do think that he’s going to have six outs here, at most, and I’d rather check behind and maybe pick off a bluff on the river. Remember, just because you have “the best hand,” it doesn’t mean that you always need to bet it — especially if checking gives your opponent a chance to make a poor bluff on the river. As the hand played out, our opponent folded to our bet, and we took down the pot with what was, in all likelihood, the best hand.

Part of becoming a strong no-limit hold’em player is learning to understand relative hand strength, and not being afraid to make calls with weak hands if you figure that it’s best to do so. Playing with no pair is often tricky, but if your opponent bluffs a lot, or can’t make thin value-bets, ace high is often a great hand with which to play bluff-catcher and pick up some nice pots.

To watch Evan Roberts comment on and play this hand, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/link/eroberts-6.