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Playing Ace High Part II
Ace High on the Flop, cont.

One thing you must consider—yet which many, many players overlook—is whether or not there are players left to act behind you. As a rule, you should be more aggressive with ace-high if all have checked to you and there’s nobody left to act behind you. You do this for a couple reasons: First, it’s much more likely that you’ll have the option of taking a free card on the turn if you don’t catch and it’s checked to you. Second, by betting you’ll often make it to the showdown very cheaply (this is especially true against very bad and very passive players). If you’re against two players for example, and both have them have shown the propensity to check the river to you after you’ve checked the turn, a bet on the flop becomes much more attractive.

Example: you have A T offsuit, and call in late position after two callers. The small blind folds, and the big blind checks. Four of you see a flop of 7 7 3. All check to you.

You should bet here. Yes, someone may be getting tricky with a seven. And yes, nobody is going to believe you have a seven when you bet. However, just because you’re realistically not going to be able to represent trips doesn’t mean everyone’s going to race to get their chips in after you bet. On flops like these, you’ll frequently see players just hang it up and fold, even if they suspect that a bluff check-raise might work. Also, there’s no reason to think that your AT isn’t the best hand right now. If the flop were more coordinated (say, something like 8 7 3, or Q 9 5), or if there were a player or two left to act behind you, I’d check almost every time. But this flop is pretty ragged. Also, if you do have the best hand, and you check, there probably will be 15-20 cards that could land on the turn which will put you behind. If someone catches one of these cards, and that same person would have folded for a bet on the flop, you have essentially handed the pot to one of your opponents.

Taking the same hand, let’s look at the situation if you have a player or two left to act behind you (note: This shouldn’t happen all that often, since I hope you’re not in the habit of playing A T offsuit from middle or early position). Say you limp in after two limpers in early position, and the cutoff and button both call. The small blind folds, and the big blind checks. The flop comes7 7 3, and all check to you. What’s your move?

Check. The presence of two players left to act turns this hand from a bet to a check. True, your chances of still being ahead here are roughly the same as they were in the first example. But what you need to recognize is that either of players behind you calling will just give you fits. In the first example, the hand becomes fairly easy to play after the flop; if you get one caller, it’s probably worth taking another poke at the pot on the turn (unless you’ve noticed that the caller is a fairly reasonable player, in which case you may want to just check and hope for the best). If you get two callers, you’re probably done putting money in the pot unless you improve. But what do you do if someone with better position calls your flop bet? He could have a seven, something like 55, or maybe a goofy hand like A4 or K8. There’s just no way to know. Also- and this bears emphasizing- your chances of getting a free showdown have decreased dramatically, since many players will slip into ‘auto bet’ mode if someone bets into a ragged flop and proceeds to check the turn.

In short, you bet in the first example not just because you think you’re probably ahead, but because a bet sets up all kinds of possibilities for getting to the showdown even if you don’t improve. In the second hand you just don’t have that luxury. While I concede that it’s more likely that your bet will bet ‘respected’ when it comes from middle position as opposed to from the button, this doesn’t compensate for the fact that a call from a player behind you would be a nightmare.

A second consideration is the composition of the board. Always be more inclined to play ace high aggressively if the board is ragged. In the hand we discussed above, a flop steal is correct for two reasons; 1) you’re last to act, and 2) a board of 773 usually isn’t going to attract a gaggle of callers. When you see a flop of J 9 6, or K T 7, your move is almost always to check and fold with an unimproved ace (obvious exceptions occur when you’ve also flopped a gutshot and have the proper pot odds to take a look at one more card).

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Other Poker Strategy Articles:
Part III: Ace High on the Turn
Part IV: Ace High on the River