tl/dr: Flopped Aces full, turned Quads, got paid well on river, but missed out on high hand promo by not fully understanding the casino rules. Interested in walking through this hand, and the extra factors present when playing a hand with the high hand bonus in play.
It’s my first time playing at MGM National Harbor, and first time playing at a live casino with a high hand promotion (I’m primarily an online player). I’ve been at a 1/3 table for seven hours and have been overall playing pretty well (at that point I’m up around $250 even after starting the night down $300 when my KK lost to ATs all in on flush draw flop). Table has been fairly loose and passive recently, and I’d been mostly playing tight, raising very big with premium hands to get heads up or three way and over-limping small PPs, small Axs, and suited connectors. Main villain in the hand was fairly new to the table, I noticed that in position he was liable to stab at limped pots that no one seemed to want, and he had also paid me off for three streets when I squeezed over 2 limps to $20 from BB with AQs and bet medium-large amounts on an Q-high rainbow flop (he sighed and showed KQo after calling ¾ river bet).
On to the hand:
Table is 6 handed, effective stack is ~$230. First two players fold, CO limps, BU calls, Hero completes in SB with A2hh, BB checks. I didn’t want to raise with this hand because I was sure that CO and BU would call, and BB could call too, even if I pumped it up quite high. These guys would call a big raise with garbage like A7o, so I wouldn’t even be that happy hitting my ace on the flop. Therefore just calling seemed like the right play.
Flop comes AsAc2c, and I try not to look too excited after flopping a full house. I worry that no else has an ace and would easily fold if I led out, so I check hoping that someone will bet the flop with an A (that I now crush), 22 (which I will stack), a flush draw, a PP, or even air trying to take down the pot. The CO does just that, betting $8 into a pot of $12, and the BU quickly folds.
Decision Point #1: Call or Raise?
I elect to call, given that I had just taken down a big pot against villain by playing a good hand in a very obvious way, and I really worried that I would fold out the PPs and airy bluffs, and maybe even the flush draws. I didn’t really think he had an Ace, but that’s easy to say in retrospect. If he did have an Ace, this hand could potentially get raised and re-raised all-in on the flop, which would be ideal, and some players might think it would be crazy to raise this flop with an A and would paint me as bluffy and try to play back at me. I might make that play against a different player and/or if I was seen as having a bluffier image, but it didn’t feel right at the time.
Turn comes Ad. I have quad Aces! I now belatedly realize that my hand qualifies for the $300 high hand promotion that runs every 30 minutes, of which I had only been made vaguely aware and hadn’t seen hit at my table. The minimum requirement for the high hand Bonus was Aces full (which I flopped on the flush), but of course your high hand has to hold up against the possibility of anybody else at the poker tables making a better hand in the same 30 minute interval. The time is roughly 7pm, so there was 15 minutes left in the current High Hand period, and nobody had hit anything yet so even the nut low high hand I hit on the flop would have qualified. It’s also worth mentioning that the casino was pretty packed, and I’d noticed that most of the winning high hands (which seemed to hit a lot) were always something like Quad 7s or above, so Aces full may not be likely to survive another 15 minutes.
In any case, I now turn Quads, and know that I’ve most likely made another $300 on top of whatever this pot is. I decide to check to the bettor, not wanting to play out of flow and make him suspicious. Of course I was worried he would check behind, but I was very sure that he would continue firing, as there was no way he could put me on a hand as strong as quads. If he has a PP, he thinks he’s value betting my deuce, flush draw, or maybe even something like Kx hoping for a good kicker at showdown. If he’s on a draw or bluff, I want him to think he can barrel me off. So I check and villain bets $25 into a pot of $38.
Decision Point #2: Call or Raise this turn bet?
Just like on the flop, I worry that a raise to any decent sized value might scare away my opponent, who of course can’t have an A but could still be bluffing, have a weak full house, or be on a draw. I also consider that if I raise turn to something like $70 or $80 and get called, I would definitely be going all-in on the river and I think it may be pretty easy for villain to fold if he has one of the weaker hands he could hold or misses any draw he might be on. Conversely, if I just call, I think there’s a decent chance villain will bet on a lot of rivers if checked to him (either as a bluff or if his draws got there), and then I can check raise all-in and put him a tough spot that may be harder to fold.
So I elect to call again, the pot is now $88, and we’re on to the river, which is the Ks.
I semi-tank check (hoping villain thinks I’m contemplating a bluff on the K scare card), and villain pretty quickly bets $50. He also seems fairly confident in the hand, so I’m really hoping he hit a king on the river and thinks he has the nuts. I wait for a bit, trying to look unsure, and then go all-in for his remaining ~$140. He looks pained, tries talking to me and asking if I have quads, but I try to remain impassive and look at the flop. Eventually he calls, I flip over the A2, and he angrily shows the K9cc. I imagine he thought he was catching a crazy bluff or at least chopping another K.
So I think the hand itself is interesting in a vacuum when considering the most exploitative line to play, given that quads are so rare and so unexpected that you can make a lot of money from players who think they’re bluff catching with a full house or at worse just chopping.
But here’s where the high hand bonus wrinkle comes into play. After I show quads, the dealer and a reg at the table start telling me that I made a big mistake because the high hand promotion is only valid if the hand includes both of the player’s hole cards, not just one. In my case, the river K meant the 2 in my hand didn’t matter, and therefore I wasn’t eligible to win the $300 high hand bonus. I’m a little in shock, given that I hadn’t heard about that aspect of the promo. According to the dealer, if I had raised on the turn and the villain mucked, I could then show down my A2 on the AAA2 flop and thus be eligible for the high hand bonus. I also could have raised the flop, got a fold, and showed down the flopped full house for the much lower Aces-full high hand.
So while I overall made $246 from the hand (before subtracting the rake and dealer tip), I could have made $317 if I raised the flop, villain folded, and my aces-full held on for 15 minutes, and I could have made $342 if I check-called flop than raised my quad Aces and villain folded.
My question, then, is how should I have played this hand if I knew about the high-hand bonus and its exact requirements?
It strikes that there are two related questions here.
On the flop, I get the lowest possible high hand, with another 15 minutes to go at a busy casino where I have to think the odds of my hand holding on are not great. However, literally every card except for the two remaining 2s and the case A counterfeit the 2 in my hand, so I would no longer be eligible anyway. In this case, do I sacrifice the value I could get from the villain in the hand by raising and hoping for the high hand? How close to the high hand period’s end should I make that move? With 10 minutes left? With 5 minutes?
On the turn, now that I know the rules, I think a turn raise in this exact spot is super obvious, given that basically every river counterfeits my high hand, AND Quad Aces are highly unlikely to lose to a better high hand in the next 15 minutes. Plus, if I raise a good amount here and get called, there’s still a chance I can win a big pot if villain gets something good on the river. The real question, though, is should I have lead on the turn when I hit quads? I really don’t want villain to check back and cause me to lose the high hand bonus, so can I just tell villain that I have quads and I’d rather get the promo money than his money? Can I even show him my hand if he thinks I’m just bluffing? I imagine this is casino-specific, so if anyone knows how this works at MGMNH (or at other places in AC or Vegas) I’d love to know.
Final question, how bad does your kicker have to be to sacrifice value in order to save your hand from getting counterfeited on the river? Let’s say I had A8s in this exact spot, do I lead turn and tell villain, check-raise turn and tell villain, or check-raise normally and hope that a low card comes on the river and I can thus stack my opponent AND get the bonus. I never get to this spot having limped pre-flop with AK, AQ, or AJs, so the worst A I have here is probably ATo or maybe AJo if I was feeling passive.
Sorry if this was a wall of text, but there are a lot of interesting out-of-game variables I’d never had to consider before when playing online, and I’m curious what people think.
