Low Limit No Limit Part VIII:
Playing Ace King

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

I live in Boston. Last night, October 16th, was game three of the Yankee-Red Sox American League Championship Series (ALCS). The Yankees, in New York, had won the first two games. This was the first game in Fenway. It was, in the overused phrase of baseball, "a must-win game" for the Red Sox. If they lost they'd be down 3-0 to the Yankees - a deficit that no major league baseball team has ever recovered from in a best-of-seven post-season game.

Early yesterday afternoon, I was listening to some Red Sox fans talking about the game to come. They had tickets and were speculating about how the Sox would do. One of them said, "They play better as an underdog. I feel better about their chances tonight than I did when they started the series and were favorites." His buddy agreed readily - nodding his approval of the notion that the Red Sox were actually in better shape tonight, after having lost two straight to the mighty Yankees, than they were going into game one and game two when their best two pitchers Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez were on the mound and they were expected to win.

As those of you who follow baseball already know, he the Red Sox lost game three 19-8 in their most dreadful outing in their long playoff history against the Yankees. So much for the advantage of being an underdog. So much for the intangibles.

Intangibles in baseball are a lot like deception in poker. Just as it's easy to be seduced by those intangibles in baseball, it's easy to get fooled into thinking that the deceptive value of a hand makes it better than it really is. This comes up regularly when players talk about playing with Aces as opposed to Ace-King. In fact, some like to say that they'd rather play Ace-King over Aces. I've heard many a low limit player quote Doyle Brunson's Super/System on this point. By doing so they show a fundamental lack of understanding about the nature of low limit no limit - and perhaps poker in general.

Know this. Aces are a far superior hand to Ace-King in these low limit games because you aren't trying to gain value through deception. Ace-King, as Doyle rightfully points out, can end up with someone else's stack because they can make a deceptively powerful hand. But against the opponents you're likely to be up against when you're playing at the $1/2 $100 max buy-in game, those Aces are far superior because you'll be playing straight up, not looking for deceptive value at all. You just want to outplay your opponents, not out strategize them. Straight up, nothing beats Aces.

Aces are much, much, much, much, much better than Ace-King when they're heads up. Don't forget that. If you raise the bring in and get re-raised by a tight aggressive player and figure him for Aces you MUST dump that Ace King. The Aces are 93:6 favorites if the A-K is suited, about 87:12 if they aren't suited. That's an overwhelming favorite. Even if you figure him for a big pair you should consider dumping that Ace-King. A-K against Kings is a 2:1 underdog. A-K against Queens, Jacks and Tens is still a dog, 46% to 54% heads up. There's no question but that you should want to have Aces instead of Ace-King. Not to understand that is to misunderstand the difference between a big limit game and a game of low limit players.

I'm against raising in early position with that Ace-King in the typical low limit no limit game. Since your opponents will call you with so many hands, you probably won't know where you stand when the flop hits unless it's an Ace or a King, in which case you're likely to be in the lead. But even then, since players will often call your raise with any pair, you really won't know if you're against trips when that Ace or King hits. What will you do if you're re-raised when an A-7-6 hits the flop? Do you assume your opponent is an idiot and is just trying to run you off your hand with a bluff? Or do you assume he magically hit his trips when you hit top pair top kicker?

This is a problem even when you have position with your A-K. Here's a hand I played a couple of years ago. It was a pot limit game but the decisions were similar to those in a no limit game. I had A-K in the four seat. The three seat raised the pot, making it $7 to go. I raised the pot, making it $24 to go. Everyone folded to the three seat. She called the $17 raise. Pot was $51. The flop was A K 6, three-suited. Three seat bet $50. I raised $150. The three seat paused a long time and then called me. The turn brought a nine. She checked and I bet $100 putting her all in. The River was uneventful. We flipped over our cards. Her trip 6s beat my Aces up.

I recall Doyle mentioning that he preferred Ace-King to Aces. But then I also remembered what type of games he was in - ones with good, solid players - ones where he knew his opponents fairly well. But low limit games are different. They are games with a large number of unskilled, unpredictable and wild players. Doyle has advice for those types of players that is markedly different from what he recommends for games with skilled players. Consider this from page 432 in Super/System.

"Against a low-grade player…you simply make the obvious play. That is, you don’t try to get fancy when you’re in a pot with a weak player. You don’t try to make subtle moves that’ll be far beyond his capacity to understand or appreciate. You play fundamentally better (rather than strategically better) than a weak player. In a word, you outplay him."

For me, the obvious Ace-King play pre-flop, especially from early position, is to call the big blind, not to raise. You have, afterall, a drawing hand not a made hand. You generally need to hit something to make the winning hand. Though the temptation to bet with that Ace King is strong, you need to resist it until you hit the flop. And if you don't hit the flop, get out unless the bet is very small relative to the size of the pot you expect to win. If, for example, you call the blinds and see six other players call and then, after you check the flop, someone bets two times the big blind or even three time the big blind and there are already a few callers when it gets to you� you can call along too. What you're doing is hoping to see an Ace or a King on the turn. You then want to bet strongly, but not too strongly. If you get raised you must fold. But you may well have the best hand and still get a caller or two with a weaker Ace or King. Again, though, if you're raised you've got to presume someone has you beaten and you must get out.

In late position you have a few more options. You can call a small or medium raise pre-flop. But you should resist the urge to reraise. And if the raise is huge, as some players tend to make it pre-flop, don't play. Some of these low limit players will raise the $1/2 blind to $15 or even more. Don't play if they do. Why risk being up against some idiot playing Aces too strongly. Similarly, don't fall in love with that Ace-King. If a pair raised you're behind. You're only a very small dog if the pair is low. But if it's an Ace or a King you're dead meat, as we've seen. Play the hand cautiously. But if there's no betting and you're in late position you can raise. What you want is for some of the players who called the blinds with a weak Ace or weak King to call your bet. What you want is a King or Ace on the flop. But beware of raising a large amount. That may get the weak Aces and weak Kings to fold. And those are exactly the players you want in with you.

After the flop I'm aggressive with my Ace-King if it hits a decent flop. If my opponents are playing lower pairs or my pair with a lower kicker I need to make them pay for their draws. I'll try to put my opponent all in when I have the best of it if I can. But if he plays back at me I'll become more cautious. Most of my opponents aren't sharp enough to do this with a drawing hand - with a four flush or four straight for example. Most of the time, the only way I'll be re-raised is if my opponents have hit two pair or trips. When that's the case, I'll let them lead the betting - and if I'm pretty sure in my assessment that they have hit the trips I'll fold. But that rarely happens.

By the way, as this goes to print the Red Sox are leading the Yankees in Game 7. Hey, sometimes the underdog catches runner runner and beats you.

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