Weak Opponent Pairs Door Card Heads Up

Assume you are playing a low spread limit game. You have raised the maximum on third street with split aces and get one caller. The caller pairs his door card and now has a pair of sixes showing. He bets into you.


Assume your opponent is a very loose opponent who will call with a wide range of hands on third street and always bets with a pair showing.


How do you handle the situation from here?


Mike

I would call my opponent to sixth street. If he hasn't improved on board by sixth, or at the very least caught something threatening like 6c6s5c4d, I would raise on sixth even if I have not improved. If I two pair on the river (or better) I bet, otherwise I take the free showdown.


Now, there are some problems with this path. First, if I raise on 4th and get reraised, against all but the trickiest opponents, I can throw my hand away. This may be a different situation if I had, say, aces buried with a three showing. I would lose two bets in this way. By waiting to sixth street to raise, I risk dropping at least four bets if I am against trips. However, given the style of the opponent I described, I think my play is okay. Any comments on this strategy?


Mike

Anyone who calls the maximum bet on 3rd street *must* be presumed to have *something*. Since you've got split aces, your opponent doesn't have overcards, so that leaves flush and straight draws, pairs, and the unlikely rolled-up hand.


Maybe I pay too much respect to paired doorcards, but I think I fold here. I *really* like punishing people who call my obviously-strong hands with garbage hands, but once his doorcard pairs, I have to be worried about two pair or trips.


I may be ahead here, the odds might in fact favor my being ahead here, but if I take my hand anywhere besides the muck, it will be with extreme caution.


Perhaps I call him down, but I won't call on the river unless I've improved to two pair or better.

In my experience, if you raise the maximum with split Aces in a 1-5 Stud game, you'll probably have the pot to yourself, but if you don't you're probably looking at a split pair with an ace kicker, or a big buried pair with small (doorcard) kicker. You MAY be looking at a totally live three-flush (how many of that suit were out?), but many players will drop that three flush to a max bet if they'll be heads-up with a likely pair of aces the rest of the way.


This is where knowledge of your opponent is crucial. How has he played his three-flushes thus far? Has he been staying in with small pairs/weak kickers?


You're unlikely to run into too many tricky players (at these limits, they often have what they represent, which means he had SOMETHING on 3rd when he called your raise), so if he leads on 4th, and you raise and get re-raised, or if he check-raises you, time to drop.


It's hard to drop aces on 4th, but it's also hard to get too excited at 4th street over the $13 pot either.

Alan:


We just wrote about the same thing at about the same time. Scary.


You didn't mention the size of the pot, and I may not have emphasized that enough, but the more I think about it, that should be an important factor in leaning toward releasing here.


Doc.

Even loose players have standards for what they'll call a maximum 3rd street raise with in a heads-up pot. What could he possibly have called with that you can beat on 4th street?


Even a pair of 6's and a three-flush/straight plays very well heads-up against just a split pair of Aces.


A 4th street fold is clearly in order.

"If on 4th he bets into you"


I think 99% of the players come out betting when they paired their doorcard on 4th (in HEADS-UP situations)


Many times, when they do hit a trips, they check the fourth street just to put a raise later in the hand. Even novice players know that a bet coming from a paired doorcard obtains a fold of the field, cutting the possibilities to win a fair pot.


My play (often) is to raise his 4th street bet just to know where I stand. If he smooth call I have the (little) advantage to act last in the later street(s).


Marco

reasons NOT to play(Roy West).

My opponent paired his doorcard. I found a reason NOT to play.

Good by,Thank you.


Happy pokering,

Sitting Bull

Ps Even if you had the best hand on 4th,you did not lose much by folding.

But continuing with the hand can be a catastrope.

seems like youre gonna have better opportunities against him.


i would fold every time.


brad

generally you should be folding but that is much too simplistic advice. For one thing if you play in connnecticut there is a large ante so there is more money in the pot. this could easily change your play depending upon the tendencies of your opponent.Does he call with threeflushes? does he raise with them? does he tend to slowplay here with trips?


There are players who will not bet with paired door cards if you have represented aces. while there are probably no 2+2'ers that play this way, many low limit players that i have seen will still not bet for fear of being raised here if they only have a pair. So if he is this type of player then you should clearly fold. there are also players here will check trips to slowplay, even though you will find this check suspicious, just because they think they should always slowpay trips. against this type of player who bets you should at least call. So you can see that proper strategy is much more complex than it appears.


there are situations where you should definitely play on. but your general strategy above will have you playing far too many times against tougher hands. you should pick your spots to play but in general here you should probably think fold first. Just because he is a "very loose" player who will call with a wide range of hands does not mean that you should automatically play on.


Pat

I agree Marco.


I would make a full bet EVERY time I pair my door card on 4th heads up.

I can't agree with "raising to find out where I stand." You're putting two bets into a pretty small pot, and the information you gain just might be the kind of information you could do without. There are three possibilities:


(1) You are slightly ahead

(2) You are slightly behind

(3) You are way behind


Cases (1) and (2) indicate that you should continue, but case (3) comes up enough and is sufficiently disastrous that I think you should release the hand unless this opponent is in the habit of calling raises by Aces with completely random hands. Save your money for a better gambling opportunity.