Variations on A-Q

Playing $15-$30 hold'em at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, I was in third position and picked up A-Q offsuit. An aggressive player on my right, who had been raising before the flop quite frequently and had been showing hands such as A-9 and J-10 suited, made it $30 to go. What would you do?

I considered it clear to reraise, since I probably had a better hand than his, and wanted to play heads up acting after him. Things went according to plan, and heads up, I managed to win $160 when an ace flopped and I had the better kicker.

A week later while playing $15-$30 hold'em at Bellagio in Las Vegas, I was sitting to the left of an attractive young blond lady. She had been playing fairly tight, and had an impressive amount of chips in front of her. During more than two hours of play, she had raised before the flop only with pocket kings and A-K suited. She had straight-called with an A-J.

In third position, I picked up A-Q. Before I could make my move, she raised before the flop. What would you do with my hand?

Coward that I am, I folded. I considered myself a strong underdog. She proceeded to pound on the two blinds, one of whom called to the end. She had pocket kings again. If I had called, I would have hit a queen on the flop. So, I saved quite a bit by not getting involved.

I consider both of the foregoing relatively straightforward and routine actions. The following is a much tougher dilemma of when to lay your money down.

In the same $15-$30 game at BelIagio, I made it $30 to go before the flop from middle position with A-Q. The player on the button, who was unknown to me but seemed to be relatively aggressive, made it three bets. Everyone else folded to me. What would you do?

If I knew that he was a very solid player, I would call, hoping to get very lucky on the flop, but I have noticed that it appears to be fashionable in Las Vegas and elsewhere in this modern world to make "less-than-full-strength" reraises. I have seen reraises made with weakish hands such as A-10 or even low suited connectors. So, he could have reraised with anything. I called.

The flop came J 10 2. I had the A, and needed a king to make the nut straight. What would you do with my hand?

Since I didn't intend to fold, I decided to come out firing to see what he would do. He raised. At this point, would you not call?

I called. The turn card was the 3. Now, I also had the nut-flush draw. What would you do now? If you check and he bets, what would you do?

I checked and called his bet. At the very least, there was enough money in the pot to justify drawing (for a spade or a king, or perhaps even an ace or a queen).

The river card was a brick, the 7. I checked, and he bet. What would you do now?

I folded, since there were millions of hands that would beat me. That was a mistake! He proudly showed A-9 offsuit!

Maybe I should have called on the theory that his bet showed that he had either a good hand or a bad hand, and there were many medium hands with which he might check rather than "thin bet" the last card. Maybe it would have been more consistent, since I had fished in that far, to simply lay down my money and see if he really did have something good. This is a tough game sometimes.