Heads up with when you know ONE of opponents cards - best strategy?

[jackdaniels]

CROSS POSTED IN SMALL STAKES NL - Was Advised to Post Here.

So I am playing in a home game the other night and the dealer flips one of the cards over as he is dealing. The card is a Jack and the player says: "wait, I may want to keep it". He decides he does not want to keep it and the dealer keeps dealing. I then say that even if it was an Ace, then it is too much information to give your opponent about your hand. The guy disagrees and I suggest we play heads up w/100BB and he will always have an Ace of spades in his hand+one other random card. The game is set for next week and I was wondering what the best strategy for this type of situation would be.

If I missed any relevant details, let me know and I will add as available. Of note, this player is very weak but I am also pretty new to NL (having played limit for over 5 years now, NL for a month or so).

[omgwtfnoway]

my first advice would be to play one of your friends like this several times. a couple times with your friend always have the As and a couple times with you having it. this way you get a feel for the kinds of strategy/tactics likely to be pursued by both players and how to adjust your own game.

there's a good chance that you'll be inclined to play mind games during this match (ie i think you think i'm bluff-raising because you know i know you blah blah) try to avoid this unless you think you have a very significant psychological edge over this opponent.

fwiw, i think your edge is negligible at best. your opponent is going to have aces 1/17 of the hands and AT or better 19/51 of the hands (4 ways each to make A2-AK and 3 ways to make AA). expect to be 3bet a lot preflop if your opponent knows what he's doing. he should play very aggressively on the early streets since you'll be drawing to beat him most of the time. i suggest utilizing pot control and slowplaying frequently to slow him down and get free cards for when you're drawing.

on the flop, he'll have a pair or better or a legitimate draw about 35% of time, the rest he'll have A high. since you'll know when he flops a pair of aces and won't pay off if he does there's the ~17.5% of the time he flops a different pair (i'm neglecting the draws for now) that you have to worry about beating you.

[jackdaniels]

[ QUOTE ]
my first advice would be to play one of your friends like this several times. a couple times with your friend always have the As and a couple times with you having it. this way you get a feel for the kinds of strategy/tactics likely to be pursued by both players and how to adjust your own game.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is excellent advice. Thx for the rest of the advice as well. I know I am up against it, but am hoping to trap him in a big hand should I get one. I doubt he will be able to get away from a pair of aces on the flop - even if he suspects I have flopped 2 pair or better. I will definitly play this a bit with a friend and see what works/what doesn't.

[omgwtfnoway]

it might also be a good idea to mess around with pokerstove and see what kind of ranges you could push against preflop and be profitable. specifically i'm thinking about pushing when you have a big ace of your own or a pocket pair.

this is a good question and i'm thinking about playing around with the numbers and/or playing against one of my friends like this. i'll let you know if i find anything interesting.

[BigBiceps]

In limit, having the ace every hand is a clear advantage.

In no-limit it depends on the stack sizes.

Smaller stack sizes, having the ace every hand is a big advantage, just push allin every hand.

For some stack size in between (who knows what amount) it is probably a fair game.

Larger stack sizes it is a big disadvantage, for the obvious reasons in no limit.

Anyone have a guess/way to compute for what stack size in big blinds makes this a fair game? (50BB?)

[jay_shark]

A good strategy for the player holding the ace is to be very aggressive preflop .

However , you would gain a significant advantage on the flop against this player . If no ace hits and one of your hole cards pairs the board , then you're hand is quite strong . You would have two cards that could hit the flop in which case he would have no clue what it is , and you would only be unsure about one of his hole cards .

Your bluffs will also be more successful for obvious reasons . Now if your cards don't hit the flop , then you are clearly behind which gives you several options . You may either decide to bluff the hand letting your opponent know that you've hit the flop , or you can simply check it when you miss and your hand is less than ace high . However , you can't be too aggressive on the flop or else he would simply raise you on the flop with ace high which may be good . You may use game theory to randomize your bluff attempts which would minimize his possible pyschological edge over you .

[omgwtfnoway]

try to arrange the match with very deep stacks and long levels because the shorter your stacks become the larger his advantage is like biceps said.

[guitarizt]

If he's a decent player and raises a lot preflop I just loosen up preflop and turn up the aggression postflop. If I was the guy getting an ace every hand I would have a hard time countering this even with shortstacks.

Sounds like he just plays his cards and you shouldn't have that tough of a time running all over him. I mean even if he got ako every hand it wouldn't be that hard to beat him.

[jackdaniels]

[ QUOTE ]
If he's a decent player and raises a lot preflop I just loosen up preflop and turn up the aggression postflop.

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OK, lets assume he raises pre flop - lets say to 4BB. I call and that makes an 8BB pot. If the flop contains an Ace and I can't beat it, I can either bluff at it or give up. What do I do if there is no Ace on the flop and I am first to act? Bet any flop without an Ace? C/R any such flop? Would you do this regardless of what hand you had? Maybe only if you had overcards to the board?

Keep in mind, we are playing with 100BB total. So if there are 8BB in the pot pre-flop, another 6-8 EACH on the flop (total pot now 22BB or so), any continued agression on my part (say a 1/2 pot bet on the turn) will leave me just enough chips to push the river (give or take). So how much bluffing can I really do if I always need to follow up a flop bet with a turn bet/river push?

[guitarizt]

Something that might work is to carefully pick hands to reraise with preflop. If an ace doesn't flop it's gonna be really hard for him to tell if you're bluffing or if you actually have a hand. I'd probably do this with suited connectors, that way I have good fold equity if a Q or K comes on the flop. Even if scare cards dont come you still might hit a big hand and it'll be tough for him to figure out if you're bluffing or actually have something. I'd also reraise with 77+, AT+, JT+.

If an ace doesn't flop and you're first to act I'd make a continuation bet. Since you reraised preflop it'll be tough for him to call with nothing. If you're in position and he bets into you, I might just call and check raise on the turn if I think he's weak.

You have a huge edge imho. I don't see how he can win a good percentage of the time unless he raises big every hand preflop and hope you dont pick up a hand. I mean even if you bet/call pot on every street then push the river he's gonna have a really tough time calling you.