Exposed Ace

[Nate tha' Great]

This happened to my friend in a home NLHE game.

You are in the cutoff and the first card you are dealt is an ace. Trouble is, the dealer has flipped the card FACE UP. Your choice: you can keep the ace, or the cards (including the exposed ace) will be reshuffled and you'll get something random.

What do you do and why?

What if the game were limit?

What if the *second* card you were dealt was an exposed ace and the same choice is offered to you, assuming you're allowed to see the other hole card before deciding?

[Copernicus]

On the first one, maybe I'm missing something, but why would you ever discard the A? They know you have it, but I'd rather have them be scared of the hand and win the blinds than be dealt a random card.

If a second exposed A were dealt you wouldnt get the choice, since two exposed cards should result in a misdeal and redoing everyones hand. If you did have the choice, though, I would still think you keep it regardless of the other card you can now see. An A should add more EV than any other card except a pairing card, and with only a 1/17 chance of pulling a pairing card I would think you are better off with a sure A.

[Ed Miller]

There is no way in hell that I'd want to enter a NL hand where everyone knows one of my cards, rank and suit. The only hand you could play would be AA, and the only way to play it would be to make a prohibitive preflop raise. If you don't, you leave way too much room to be outplayed after the flop.

[Copernicus]

I'm not sure its that clear. If you play your hand aggressivly pre-flop (but not huge overbets) you are going to isolate or steal an awful lot of the time. You also get more mileage out of semi-bluffs that involve As or Hs. Not only do you have an A, but youve removed an A from the deck.

I think it would be an interesting proposition situation. I would like it better in limit, for sure, but I think it can get some mileage in NL.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

If I were at the table, I'd hope you kept it. Makes my life a lot easier knowing one of your cards.

[Copernicus]

I would like to see a simulation of this for limit. I still think it is a close proposition.

17 of the top 38 hand types (out of 169 types) contain an A, and since many of the non-A hands are suited, I would guess that translates to well over half of the hands dealt from those 38 contain an A. Only 8 hands with an A fall below that level. I get those hand 6.7 times more often. Ive cut back the chances of someone else having an A from 72% to 62%. That is a lot of equity to be assured of, and to deprive the opponents of.


You are dealt KK in a normal hand with 10 players. The probability of there being an AA out there is 4.41%. If you know I have an A, the probability that I have AA is 5.9%. If I dont have AA, the probability of another of the 8 having AA is 1.9% for a total of 7.8%, so the chances of being behind have gone up by 75%. Similar would apply to other power hands.

In LP you can almost never steal my blinds, and raising for value becomes much riskier.

Pre-flop I gain a huge amount of equity, while you get the advantage of folding hands you would have played and lost, but lose some for those hands that you no longer will play but would have won.


What percentage of the time are you correct when you read an opponent for a relevant A? Youve gained nothing in those situations.

What percentage of the time does an opponent have an A that you cant read but it isnt relevant to your play? You pick up nothing there.

What percentage of the time am I folding a hand with an A when the flop misses me? You gain nothing there.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

If the pot is multi-way, I think knowing you have one ace is of value, but not huge. Heads-up is different.

In LP you can almost never steal my blinds

If I know you have an ace, why would I try to steal your blinds?

raising for value becomes much riskier.

I'm probably not going to raise preflop, no matter what I hold. (or my raises would be random).

If your point is that knowing that one of your cards is an ace isn't always a huge edge, I'll concede that, especially if your a good player. But you can't deny that you gain something from knowing one of your opponent's cards.

[Tommy Angelo]

"Your choice: you can keep the ace"

Yet another brilliant rule by Nate.

At limit I'd keep an ace and if an ace flopped I'd dare someone to bluff me while I checkcalled all the way.

At no-limit, c'mon now, especially in your game with small blinds and big stacks, this is less than a no-brainer. It's pre-fetal. I don't think it can possibly be more profitable to have a known ace than to have two unseen cards. Heck, against moderately post-fetal opponents, I don't think even the great Doyle Brunson could ever win with a known ace in his hand every hand.

I like your rule because there is only way for the opponents to go with it. Wrong.


Tommy

[cero_z]

Hi Nate,
I haven't read the other responses, but the answer seems very clear to me. Having one exposed card in your hand, no matter what it is, is death to you in NL. If you're willing to make a large raise before the flop, and the blinds are worth winning, you might try that for kicks. But no one really plays NL HE (especially in home games) to win the blinds, right?.
You want to get your money in in later rounds, assuming you play better than your opponents. How can you call a big bet post-flop if the bettor knows that your hand cannot be better than one pair? Most flops will allow them to know this. Limit poker makes it a closer decision, and I'm not sure how to analyze it, but my intuition says re-shuffle also.

[Nate tha' Great]

I think the decision is pretty clear - reshuffle 'dem cards - but I thought this was an interesting example in the value of information versus rank. Information rules. Even in limit, I think you're going to get a lot of small wins with this hand (mostly blind steals when everyone folds to you), but a lot of big losses. People aren't going to take you on unless there's a high probability that they have you beat. And in NL, you'll just get killed.

My friend kept the ace, landed another ace for his other hole card, and somehow managed to lose the hand. I didn't press him for details.