AQo on A♠ Q♥ 6♦, checked to you — bet or check?
The answer
Bet
bet small for value
Best size: ⅓ pot · $4
The math: top two pair — worse aces, queens, and the draws and floats all want to call.
Why
You flopped top two pair, one of the biggest hands this board allows, so your only job is to get money in. Worse aces call, queens call, and the gutshots, backdoor draws, and floats all pay to chase you down. Checking protects nothing and wins nothing extra; it only hands a free card to something that might outdraw you. Bet — and keep the size small: on this dry double-broadway board a big bet just folds out the worse aces and queens you want calling.
The spot
- Your seat
- BTN
- Stakes and stacks
- $1 / $2 · 100bb
- Your hand
- A♦ Q♣
- Board
- A♠ Q♥ 6♦
- Pot
- POT · $12
- Action on you
- BB checks
Every option
Checkgive a free card
Why not: Checking a monster is a leak. You slow down with the one hand that wants every chip in the middle, letting worse aces off cheap and handing draws a free card to beat you.
Betbet small for valueCorrect
⅓ pot · $4 · ⅔ pot · $8 · pot · $12
The idea behind it
When you flop a big hand like top two pair, the goal flips from protection to extraction. You want the pot to grow while worse hands are still willing to call. Betting builds it; checking a monster only lets opponents off cheap or draw out for free.
Concept: Value bet
Terms in this spot
Play it instead of reading it
The trainer deals this hand with hints, grading and spaced repetition — and randomized variations of it once you have seen it.