Suppose that an elephant has made it two bets in the second position before the flop and then a jackal in the fourth position has called the two bets. Now you call on the button with 0-0, and the big blind calls as well. The flop is 0-0-0, and the big blind checks. The elephant bets and the jackal raises. What do you do? You have flopped the "nut" (best) flush draw. If another heart comes off the deck, then you have made an ace-high flush.

This is a reasonably strong flop for your hand. With this strong draw, you'll make the flush about one-third of the time, and occasionally you may win simply by hitting your ace, so you must either call the two bets or raise it to three bets to go. My instinct in this case would be to raise. Who knows what the jackal has in this hand? He may have a flush draw or a straight draw, in which case you have him beat with your ace high at this point. Your raise may eliminate the elephant (who may have the best hand!) and get you one on one with the jackal, whom you may have beaten. The worst-case scenario for you, if you make it three bets to go, is that the elephant makes it four bets to go and you end up having to call one more bet.

In general, I recommend playing a nut-flush draw very aggressively on the flop, especially when you have position, as you do in this example. This hand all but requires that you call a bet with it on fourth street, and if it were mine I would want to put in a lot of bets on the flop and then bluff at the pot on fourth street even if a bad card comes off.

Alternatively, I'd put in a lot of bets on the flop and call down one opponent on the end with my measly ace high if there's any chance that this opponent was drawing to something as well. Sometimes the size of the pot that you create by playing the nut-flush draw aggressively will necessitate your calling on the river with merely ace high, because the size of the pot may tempt other players who are on inferior draws to make desperation bluffs at you. You win these often enough, with your ace-high river call, to justify this play.

• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Hit It Or Fold It Part2 (0)
• Playing Small Poker Pairs – Good Flops (0)
• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Hit It Or Fold It (0)

Two players to my right was a jackal from Europe who was reraising everyone while holding any kind of hand. He was a real nuisance to me, because he kept reraising me and stealing all the pots that he and I were going after. In fact, he was reraising everyone at the table and outplaying us all after the flop with his big bluffs. He had played this very dangerous style to near perfection, parlaying his chips to over $65,000. I also had about $65,000 in front of me, which is a ton of chips. This jackal and I were the chip leaders at a time when the average chip stack in the tournament was less than $15,000.

Conventional wisdom at this point would suggest that neither one of us should play a big pot against the other. Why risk a boatload of chips in a single hand, when we could both just coast in to the final table with our huge stacks of chips? A cardinal sin at this point would be to get involved in a big pot with each of us holding really weak hands.

So much for conventional wisdom and cardinal sins! I soon found myself raising it to $2,000 to go before the flop with my A-7. The jackal was sitting in the big blind this hand, and he decided to reraise me by making it $8,000 to go. Perhaps he smelled my weakness and was just trying to force me out of the pot with his weak hand. He was right—I was weak—but he didn't count on the fact that I had smelled the weakness in his reraise. So I reraised it again to $20,000 to go before the flop. Again, I think the jackal smelled some weakness in me, and in any case he decided to call my $20,000 bet. Now the flop came down 0-0-[3, and he bet out $15,000. I decided that top pair was enough to allow me to move all-in against him because I thought I had the best hand. Frankly, I wasn't hoping for a call. So I moved all-in for $45,000. (I raised him $30,000!)

The jackal then called me quickly, and the next two cards to hit the board were the two worst cards I could think of! First the H came off the deck and then the H (HS&&[5]K so that the flush draw and a straight draw had both hit the board! I stared in disbelief at the board. What had I done? I had just put in $65,000 with an incredibly weak hand! I could have waited patiently for some strong hands and made the final table fairly easily. I couldn't beat anything anymore. The flush draw beat me, some straight draws beat me, a set beat me, and an overpair beat me! But he was the first guy to flip his hand faceup, and he was taking a long time to do it.

I was thinking, "Just show me your hand, and I'll leave this tournament feeling sick about my awful play." With $130,000 in the pot in a tournament where no one else had even $30,000, the winner of this one pot would have an excellent chance of winning the tournament. Finally, he flipped up his hand and said, "One pair." I stared in amazement at his hand: 7-9 off suit, which gave him a pair of sevens with a nine kicker! I had a pair of sevens with an ace kicker, and the pot was mine! My good read of this jackal paid off, and from there I cruised easily down to the final three players. My attitude quickly changed from, "Phil, you idiot, how did you let yourself get $65,000 into this pot with this hand?" to, "Phil, baby, great play, great read, well done!" Eventually, I finished in second place and collected $110,000. Here was a story illustrating how an A-7 can pay off big when you merely hit a good flop with it. But please don't try this at home.

Examples
Now it's time to move on and give you some examples of how you should play A-x suited on the flop. In general, with A-x suited, we "hit it or fold it."

• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Flush Draw (0)
• Playing Small Poker Pairs – Good Flops (0)
• Reraising Before The Poker Flop Leads To Betting On The Flop (0)

In the discussion of preflop situations, I said that if no one else has raised the pot before the flop, and you have A-x suited, then you should make it two bets to go. In general, if you've done that but missed the flop, you should bet out once anyway, thus representing that you've hit it. If an opponent calls your bet on the flop when you've missed the flop, prepare to fold your hand soon. There is no need to get too involved with A-x suited if you miss the flop, and no warrant for bluffing off too much money with this hand. If you're the raiser before the flop, then take one "shot" (bluff) at the pot and give up if you get called.

Where someone else has raised the pot before the flop, I've been recommending that you just call his two bets. In general, if you've done that but then missed the flop, then you should fold your hand. Again, there's no need for you to get involved in such a pot by calling or raising. Just throw your hand away, save some chips, and forget about it.

With A-x suited you'll see a lot of different flops that hit part or all of your hand. You may have [*»|-p»j when the flop comes down J-10-7; this one is trouble for you (because you hit just enough of the flop that you may decide to play on until the end and lose a bunch of chips). You may have [*»j-[VJ when the flop comes down A-7-4, a terrific flop for you. You may have 0-P»] when the flop comes down 8-7-2, a reasonably good flop for you.

You may have when the flop comes down 7-5-2, a strong flop for you (top pair with top kicker). Finally, there are dream flops for 0-[3 like H-El'S (ace-high-flush) and A-A-7 (top full house).

So there are a lot of ways to hit A-x suited, some of them good and others bad. The interesting thing is that you may win your biggest pot with the 7-5-2 flop! Why? On those two "dream flops" I just mentioned, how much action can you expect to get from other players? You already have most of the cards that would get someone interested in playing. But on the 7-5-2 flop, people may sense a bluff and try what they think is a resteal (they raise on a bluff because they believe you're trying to steal the pot). In poker, you never know which hands or flops will win you the biggest pot of the night. Just be prepared to play your hand as well as you can.

I'll never forget a pot I once played holding A-7 at the World Series of Poker. The year was 1994, and we were down to about 40 players left in a no-limit Hold'em event. First place was $220,000, and as with any WSOP event, both money and history were at stake.

• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Flush Draw (0)
• Reraising Before The Poker Flop Leads To Betting On The Flop (0)
• Playing Small Poker Pairs – Terrible Flops (0)

When you're playing the small pairs the way I suggest (reraising with them before the flop), a lot of times you'll end up playing three-bet pots against only one or two opponents. When this happens, be sure you bet the flop aggressively, so as to gain information about what your opponents may have. Suppose for example that you've made it three bets before the flop with 3-3, and then the flop comes down A-K-9. If your lone remaining opponent checks, then go ahead and bet once. You never know—he may just fold for the one bet. Perhaps he too has a small pair, or he holds 10-8 suited or something of that sort.

• Playing Small Poker Pairs – Terrible Flops (0)
• Playing Small Poker Pairs – Good Flops (0)
• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Hit It Or Fold It Part2 (0)

When you have 4-4 in a pot, flops like J-J-3 or 10-10-2 or 9-9-3 are good for your hand; there is in fact an excellent chance that your two pair are the best hand at the table at this point. So put in some bets and raises, for two reasons: first, to find out if you do have the best hand; second, to protect your hand.

When you face mixed overcards like J-10-3, you're in trouble, but when a big pair lands on the flop, it's much less likely that someone already holds the key card. For example, in the J-J-3 flop, there are only two jacks left in the deck; had the flop come J-10-3, there are six cards—three jacks and three tens—in the deck that would beat you. So with the J-J-3 flop, your pocket fours are the best hand unless someone has a higher pair or one of the two remaining jacks (both are unlikely).

• Playing Small Poker Pairs – Terrible Flops (0)
• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Hit It Or Fold It Part2 (0)
• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Flush Draw (0)

Some flops are so bad for small pairs that you should just run for cover, no matter whether you've just called two bets before the flop or made it three bets. If the flop comes down Q-K-A, it's time to fold as soon as possible! Of course, if I had been using my three-bet approach I would bet on the flop when it was my turn, on the off chance that all my opponents might fold their hands, giving me the pot right there.

It could also happen that I get called on the flop and then hit my set card on either fourth street or the river. Such things are possible. But I would not call a bet on this flop; I would not call a bet on the turn; I would not call a bet on the river; I would not bet on either fourth street or the river. All I would do in this case is make that one bet on the flop when it's my turn to bet.

• Playing Small Poker Pairs – Good Flops (0)
• Reraising Before The Poker Flop Leads To Betting On The Flop (0)
• Playing A-x Suited On The Poker Flop – Hit It Or Fold It Part2 (0)