Is there a situation where just calling is justified with AK on a QKA suited flop?

Question

Suppose you raised pre-flop with the AK and have one caller, so you go heads-up to the flop. On the flop comes QKA which are all spades. This is clearly a very draw-heavy board, and your two pair AK will not be good all the time.

When you bet and you get raised, is there a situation where it is justified to just call instead of raising or folding?

Suppose the opponent is a tight/passive player. In this situation he probably already made a straight of flush and folding is the best option. He will not be semi-bluffing in this situation very often and certainly will not try this with just an ace. The only possible hand which he could have an you can beat would be AQ, which he will not have the majority of the time.

If the player is quite aggressive, there is quite a large change he has a draw and tries to semi-bluff. If you just call you give him the opportunity to make his hand. Moreover, when faced a large bet/raise on the turn you have no idea where you are at (it might still be possible he made his hand on the flop). I think raising would be the best option, but you would probably have to invest allot to give him proper odds to fold a draw, so folding might still be a valid option.

But what if you know the player is a novice and might even pull of this kind of play with just an Ace, which he thinks is very good because he does not think about draws and board texture. Would it be a good idea to just make the call? A downside of this play is you gain very little information, but he might even call a raise with what he thinks is a strong hand.

If you can think of other situations besides the situations described where it may be good play to just flat call, it would be very appreciated.

Answer 1

When you bet and you get raised, is there a situation where it is justified to just call instead of raising or folding?

In general I would say no. Lets think about this for each scenario.

Passive Fish A passive fishy player re-raises you on the flop, you should fold. Passive fish are calling stations, not raisers. When they raise it is because they a strong. Even if by some bizarre miracle you do have them beat currently, what turn/river cards are you ever going to like? Any 8,9,10,J,Q or any spade is going to put you in a bad spot, so why call here to fold later?

Agro Fish OK so now you have a player who likes to throw terrible bluffs out. However Agro fish tend to bet/give up when they have nothing or just barrel off each street. They rarely re-raise without a huge draw. Agro fish are renowned for calling crap pre-flop like K2s or J7o that smash this board. And again ask yourself if you call here, what turn/river cards are you likely to see? You can guarantee that if one of these cards do hit, your agro-fish will fire again and are you going to like that?

TAG A tag re-raising you on this flop is almost always hitting the board very hard. I am thinking two pair, sets or better. At the very least they have AK or a good spade. These players tend to have tighter, stronger ranges so when they re-raise it is usually a very strong hand. And again if they just have top pair, are you going to give action knowing you face bets on the turn and river when bad cards hit? And even if a brick hits, are you still confident you are ahead?

LAG LAG's tend to be aggressive but disciplined enough to fire and forget. They play a loose style so again a lot of hands in his range smash this board. A LAG will raise you with nothing but a straight draw here since they know it is highly unlikely that you flopped a flush and you will be scared by a lot of turn/river cards. And a LAG is going to put pressure on you whenever a scare card hits, so again why call? You either fold or raise.

NIT If a NIT ever re-raises you, not just in this spot but ever. Burn your cards, throw them away do not ever call here. NIT's only play super strong hands and would only ever re-raise you here with the nuts its that simple. Don't raise, don't call, don't even think about your hand, Fold!

Now going over the above you can start to form a very good picture of what the answer to your general question is. Never call here you are almost always up against worse hands with huge equity, or hands that simply crush you.

A question you should ask yourself and not just here but any hand you play is, if I call here am I confident I can win the hand profitably?

I think if your honest, the answer is no and so folding or raising are your best options.

Calling to hit a miracle A or K is just bad poker imo.

Now that I have made the point. Are you convinced? If not just answer these questions:

You flat his 3bet and then a spade hits. Now what do you do?

You flat his 3bet and an 8,9,10,J or Q hit. Now what do you do?

You flat and a brick hits the turn, you check or raise and he 3bets or shoves. Now what do you do?

Answer 2

I agree with @david Hirst answer and reasoning. At the end, it always depends on how well you know the opponent player. You didn't mention in your question what sort of a game it was. Is it a tournament or a cash table. What about stakes? Are you the chip leader or the caller is the chip leader , or neither? These are important considerations too. Finally, what was your raise before flop (relative to BB) and his re-raise (relative to the pot)?

However, I must say that with your AK and AKQ (flop) You have 75% of winning and 16% getting a full house. (according to http://ca.pokernews.com/poker-tools/poker-odds-calculator.htm) These odds should be taken into consideration too.

Answer 3

I would never believe he flopped a flush. If he called your raise preflop, he should be holding AK, AQ, AJ, AT. If he had QQ or JJ he would probably reraise you preflop. Anyway, there's no chance he has a flush/straight already, but he can totally have one spade, or is slow-playing AA or KK and has a set. I would evaluate that based on his play before. If he's loose, he might have A5 or so and thinking he's good with a pair of aces. However, he won't reraise you with that, he'll just call your bets and hope he wins at showdown. If he's a tight player, I would put him on a set and just check/call, hoping also that no spade comes. If a 4th spade shows up - fold. The board was just too dangerous against good players, but if I would play against a bluffer with a very wide range, I would reraise his bet on flop or even shove. It would be a pity if he had small spades, but also very much unlikely...

Answer 4

I would call if I thought my opponent had made a straight OR a flush, but not a straight flush. Many loose opponents will call pre-flop with two suited cards, or two straight cards, not necessarily two "straight flush" cards.

In this case, I am behind, but my two pair gives me a re-draw to a full house. I may call on the flop and wait till the expensive fourth street to fold, and depending on the size of the pot, I may wait for the river card. If I haven't improved by then, I would fold.

Answer 5

I cannot think of any time to just call.

You only have 4 cards to improve.

If they had AA, KK, QQ they would have raised pre.

JT spades J9 spades would have just called the flop to get max value.

Ace with J spades is in your range. T9, T8, 98, 87, 76, 65 spades, JTo might raise to protect. JTo may not be in their range. So you are are at risk with like 12 hands.

Hands they would call a re-raise with that you have beat are AQ KQ - 12.

AJ AT with a spade - 4. That could be a semi bluff wanting to build the pot. Those have 12 outs. You do not want to see a turn. You would need to bet like 5x the pot to get them off those hands. They will win like 40%. You want a fold but you have equity either way.

They could be just trying to steal the pot.

I think I would bet out about 2/3 the pot and 3 bet like 3x the villains raise. If that makes you pot committed (1/3 your chips) then jam. If villains 4 bet jams then you have to release. Scary hand.