• An ace-high straight, such as A ♣ K ♣ Q ♦ J ♠ 10 ♠, is called a Broadway straight, while a five-high straight, such as 5 ♠ 4 ♦ 3 ♦ 2 ♠ A ♥, is called a baby straight, bicycle or wheel and is the best possible hand in ace-to-five low games (where it is a high card hand, not a straight).
• In Poker, the Ace is the highest card and the 2 card (Deuce) is the lowest. However, the Ace can also be used as a low card, with the value of 1.
• Ace in the hole One of the hole cards is an ace ace-to-five, ace-to-six Methods of evaluating low hands. Act To make a play (check, bet, call, raise, or fold) at the required time, compare to in turn. Acting out of turn A player in poker.

Want to find out the probabilities of being dealt an ace before the flop in Texas Hold'em? Use the tables below to help you find the different aces odds based on the situation and the number of players at the table.

Ace of hearts, Ace of spades, 8 of diamonds, 8 of clubs, 5 of hearts. Jacks or Better has a 2-for-1 payoff on two pairs, so we’re holding both pairs, no matter what the ranks of the cards. The games in our Ace race pay only 1-for-1 on two pairs, and that makes a difference. The above hand is a close, close call in 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker. Ace of Spades Lyrics: If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man / You win some, lose some, it's all the same to me / The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say / I don't share your.

Aces probabilities odds charts.

Probability of being dealt an ace in any Texas Hold'em game is 15%.

How to use aces odds.

These tables are not going to be of much use to you whilst you play, but it is useful information on the probabilities of hands with aces turning up at your table.

The most useful information from these aces odds tables is that the likelihood of a player being dealt an ace increases with the number of players at the table.

The likelihood of another player holding an ace if you hold an ace yourself table (top right) is interesting. There is a fairly high probability that another player at a 9-seater table holds an ace if you do as well. This means that we should be cautious when dealt weak aces and should fold them in early position. There is a chance that we were the only player at the table holding an ace, but we are saving ourselves more money in the long run for when we come up against another player with a better ace than ours.

Playing aces in Texas Hold'em.

Ace In Poker High Or Low

An ace is the highest ranking card in Texas Hold'em and can be played either high or low. This means that if you are dealt an ace preflop, there is a fair chance that you hold one of the strongest hands at the table. If you are all-in with an opponent and they do not have a pocket pair or a better ace, you are the favorite to win the hand.

However, you should be careful to not become overly attached to the hand when you are dealt an Ace, because there is a fair chance that you will lose a sizeable proportion of your stack if you get into a hand with another player that holds a better ace than you (e.g. A9 vs AQ).

Be careful to not overvalue hands with aces, as they can get you in to a lot of trouble if you do not have a good kicker.

For strategy guides on how to play hands with aces, take a look at the rag aces and pocket aces articles.

Go back to the poker odds charts.

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For newer no-limit hold'em players — and those with experience, too — 'weak aces' are among the most trouble-causing starting hands to play. By 'weak aces' we're referring primarily to through , although you might even include ace-ten in the category. Sometimes these poker hands are described as 'ace-rag' as well.

Non-suited weak aces are obviously less attractive starting hands to play than suited aces, although you shouldn't necessarily get overly excited about being dealt hands like or . Whether playing live or online poker, you often encounter players overvaluing weak ace hands, and frequently paying the price as a result.

The Challenge to Flop Well with Weak Aces

To begin, there just aren't that many favorable flops when you hold weak aces.

Flopping two pair is always nice, including when you have weak aces. But the chances of pairing both of your hole cards are quite slim — 49-to-1. You also need an opponent to catch a piece of such a flop in order to get action on such a hand.

Flopping any sort of straight draw with weak aces isn't necessarily great, either. A straight draw using your ace will necessarily be a gutshot draw, and one using your kicker (e.g., you hold and the flop comes ) could be vulnerable to draws to higher straights and/or made straights.

Meanwhile if your weak aces are suited you're only a little worse than 8-to-1 to flop a flush draw — often a best-case scenario when holding a hand like . Of course, flopping a flush is an extreme longshot — 118-to-1 — and even those rare times when you do, it's often hard to get action on single-suited boards versus players who necessarily cannot have the nuts.

All of which is to say, relatively speaking, while having an ace in your hand (even with a poor kicker) might look nice before the flop, there are actually very few flops that are unequivocally good for you with such hands. That fact should dictate how you approach playing weak aces both before and after the flop.

Playing Weak Aces Preflop

You often will want to ditch weak aces preflop when opening the action from early position. Raising from under the gun with and then getting called by players who will act after you postflop is an awkward spot you can easily avoid by folding.

You will often also want to fold weak aces preflop when facing a raise. An exception might be when playing from the cutoff or button and getting dealt weak suited aces like or , especially if the stacks are deep enough to give you good implied odds should you flop that flush draw or make a flush by the turn or river. The strategy here is not unlike that employed when set mining.

Calling preflop raises from the blinds with weak aces, even when they are suited, usually isn't as preferable since you won't have position postflop. Depending on stack sizes, the amount of the raise, and the number of players in the hand, however, you could still make that call with a plan to abandon the hand should you fail to flop that flush draw.

Playing Weak Aces Postflop

Being able to get away from weak aces is part of the problem these 'trouble hands' pose, though. Say you do call a raise from the small blind with and the flop brings an ace. Many players find it hard to let go of a top-pair hand after the flop, even when an opponent's actions strongly point to that hand being second-best.

If you hold and a flop comes , sure, you have top pair. But if anyone else shows interest with a bet, raise, or even a call of your bet, you can't be too enthused about your hand. Indeed, rather than trying to build a pot you'll likely be thinking about pot control, minimizing losses, or perhaps even tossing the hand if the heat increases on the turn or river (all of which is harder to manage when out of position).

The same goes for pairing your kicker — say, with on a flop. Rarely will you be making top pair with cards nine or lower, meaning you've got at best a medium-strength hand that might be good at showdown, but isn't worth pouring lots of chips in behind.

Caution is the word, then, the further into a hand you go with weak aces. Don't expect to win many big pots with them, and try to avoid situations where you can lose a lot of chips.

When Can You Play Weak Aces?

While avoiding weak aces altogether is not a bad rule of thumb, especially for newer players, there are a couple of situations when weak aces become more attractive to play. For both, think 'short' — as in short-stacked and short-handed.

When short-stacked in a tournament — and we mean severely short-stacked and in the danger zone (down to 5-6 big blinds or thereabouts) — open-pushing with a weak-ace hand is usually not a bad decision to make.

If you're called, you'll at least be a slight favorite against any unpaired hand not containing an ace. In fact, you'll have at least some equity against any hand other than pocket aces (against which you'll be toast). For example, has 28% equity versus , nearly 27% versus , and so on.

What you don't want to do with weak aces when your stack is low in a tournament is either to call a raise or reraise. As in any short-stacked tournament scenario, you want to add fold equity, too, when committing those last chips. After all, if you can shove your and get it through to win the blinds and antes, that's much preferable to having to sweat five community cards against what will likely be a better hand. Calling off your stack with such a hand or reraising all in against someone who has already raised is almost a guarantee you'll be an underdog to survive.

Weak aces also become marginally more attractive in short-handed no-limit hold'em games (i.e., six-handed or less), and even more so in heads-up situations. They remain vulnerable, of course, but with fewer opponents to deal with the chances of another player being dealt an ace with a better kicker go down a bit when you choose to play your ace-rag.

Speaking of heads-up situations, the blind-versus-blind scenario that sometimes arises in no-limit hold'em is another spot where weak aces become more attractive to play. If it folds around to you in the small blind and you look down at , odds are your starting hand is better than your lone opponent's, which should provide encouragement to play the hand. (And raise it — don't just limp in and let your opponent see a free flop with position.)

Also in this series...

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Ace Card In Poker

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