A Common MTT situation

[Awesemo]

In the first few rounds there is one situation that comes up fairly often that I don't really know how to play correctly. I have a mid-high pocket pair and raise first in to 3x bb. The big blind calls. The flop comes ace high with two undercards to the pair. They check to you. How much should you bet and why?

[SossMan]

With deep stacks, I would go with a standard continuation bet of about half the pot. If called and checked to again, I would probably shut down and check behind. I would call on the river depending on how much they bet vs. the pot, how high my pair is vs. the other board cards (i.e. could he be betting another pair smaller than mine?).

I think whatever you normally bet there w/ AK should be the bet w/ the mid pair. You have to assume you have the best hand until he gives you reason to believe that you are not.

[SpeakEasy]

In this situation, I start with the assumption that he does not have an ace. I bet more than 1/3, up to half the pot -- maybe 2.5 or 3xBB in this case.

Why? This is enough that it looks like you want a call, holding an ace. This is enough to kill the odds on most draws, if there is straight or flush potential. If he doesn't have the ace, you likely do have the best hand, and he likely folds. If you get check-raised, muck and move on, because you are probably beat.

[Sam T.]

If it's early and I don't necessarily want a lot of customers, I usually go with a raise of 5BB. With mid-pockets, I'll sometimes limp and play for set value.

If it's a low buy-in tournament, BB is calling with a wide range of hands ("Hey, I've already put money in. Besides it's only 50 chips"). Unfortunately, in a lot of cases they are calling with any ace.

In this situation, I'll put out a bet of half the pot (two thirds if the board is two-suited). If he calls or raises, I'm pretty much done with the hand unless the turn is awfully kind.

If you're feeling unconventional, maybe check it through and see what he does on the turn. If it's a small bet, raise it up. If it's real, fold. The problem with this is that the $5 tournaments I play are filled with people who don't worry about their kicker, making it very difficult to push them off their ace.

[Lloyd]

Just to add a little to SossMan's response:

The more people in the pot, the more likely someone has an Ace and you should check and fold. Heads up, I assume they don't. With two people, especially early in a tournament, someone probably has it although I might still make a continuation bet. With three people, forget about it. Your beat.

You have to pretend you have AK and bet accordingly. For me, that is usually about half to 2/3 the pot. I would prefer to bet half, but I find that people who are on draws are more likely to think that my half pot-size bet is weak and play back or call. At 2/3, it seems a bit stronger. So early on, I usually bet 2/3 and as the blinds increase I decrease the bet a little.