Introduction

• As of 37% equity Ace high becomes profitable

• As of 38-39% against smart turn bettors

• As of 35% against tight turn bettors

• As of 27-28% after pre-flop 3bet

It happens very often that you defended your big blind with Ax and missed the flop. This is the typical situation in which you realize the bad playability of A high with a small kicker.

Actually you have no idea where you stand after the flop and, forlorn, you have to play out of position against the pre-flop aggressor. Fact is though, that it is too weak to always simply play C/F if you didn't hit a pair or a strong draw - since A high is often the best hand against steal raises even if it remains unimproved.

Yet this hand is usually also too weak for C/R and as you have showdown value yourself, it's also difficult to get better hands to fold. Thus in this situation check/call flop is often the only option to usefully continue playing your equity after the flop.

But how are you supposed to know if your hand is good enough to still be played or not? The following article will give you the needed information. It will show you how to evaluate your hand after the flop without a pair or a strong draw, and how to decide if you can continue playing your hand or not. For this we generally assume that the opponent will ALWAYS make a continuation bet on the flop. In real life, this is the case >95% of the time.