Holding Ace blocker doesn’t just influence the hand preflop but also post-flop. Preflop hand Reduction of combos AK from 16 to 12 AKo, AQo, AJo from 12 to 9 AKs, AQs, AJs from 4 to 3 AA from 6 to 3 Table 3 Suited Ax, especially low ones, are also great 4bet bluff candidates but, of course, with much lower frequency since our value 4bet range is naturally narrower. In this scenario on 459 we would have at least a gutshot straight draw, or maybe a pair) (* how much of a board do our hole cards cover postflop. They also provide us with good board coverage* on low runouts. Suited wheel aces are especially favored because of their ability to flop flushes, straights, and all kinds of draws. As demonstrated in the picture below we can see that a lot of our bluffs come from suited Ax. Our 3beting range should consist of all strong hands and some bluffs. We sit OTB with 100 BB and face a CO raise.
For a more straightforward illustration of how to include Axs into your 3beting range, let’s look at a typical situation. The power of 3beting suited ace X is that it has solid playability when called, and it blocks our opponent’s strong hands. Suited Ax is one of the prime 3bet bluff candidates.
Pots are not raked in MTTs, and the presence of ante gives you a lot better odds when calling. Cold calling with Ax suited is much more appealing in multi-table tournaments (MTTs) then the cash game environment. We can play with a lot of suited aces in position versus opens.
Suited aces are great to have in your cold calling range. The correct move, if faced with a bet, is to fold and avoid tough spots on later streets. It is hard to continue when you miss the flop out of position with your weak ace high. You can play them from EP because their suitedness gives them enough of a fighting chance against our opponents’ calling ranges. Off suite, varieties serve mainly for late position steals, while you can open Ax suited from any position in a 6max cash game. Opening with an ace ragĪce rags play mostly the role of steals in a preflop RFI (raise first in) strategy. So now that we know how common ace rag is, let’s dive right into some strategy. There are more off suited ace rags that there are pair combinations (96 combinations vs. Every time that you get dealt a hand, there is a 7.24% chance that you will get off suited ace-rag. There is 3 times more likely that you will get dealt offsuit ace then suited. Suited aces have excellent post-flop playability, which gives them the option to play and win big pots. The potential for making a big hand allows us to call and bet more liberally. Basic poker probability tells us that we flop a flush 0.8% of the time and FD 10.09% of the time. The most crucial attribute of suited aces is the possibility of flopping nut flush or nut flush draw (FD). Take, for example, Jack rag of which there are only 80 combinations compared to 128 combos of ace rag. It is more likely that you’re going to get ace with a rag then any other broadway card. Equity against A6s A7s A8s A3s A4s A5s 99+,AJs+,KQs,AQo+ 31.84% 31.99% 31.91% 32.44% 32.78% 33.09% Table 1: Equity difference between wheel Ax and non-wheel ones, that have a higher kicker.ĭifference i nequity between A5s and A5o is quite big.įun fact: Remember in-game when it sometimes feels like you get dealt ace rag all the time. I know it’s only 1%, but small things add up in poker. As you can see in table 1 A5s has 1% more equity than A7s, which is kinda counter-intuitive. That gives them a small overall equity advantage vs. The only difference between them and other rag aces is that they can flop a straight. Wheel acesĪces with a kicker between 2 and 5 are called wheel aces. It’s an ace with a weak kicker that cannot flop a broadway straight. For the sake of argument, we will define ace-rag as an ace with a kicker 9 and below. A5s from MP is a standard open while off-suited combos are basically unplayable. Do suitedness and position influence on how bad ace is? They do actually.Ī9o OTB is considered almost premium while we can dump it pretty easily UTG. What exactly is ace-ragĭefining ace-rag can be a little tricky.
Ace rag are all hole cards consisting of an ace and 9 or a lower card.