In high-winning hands, an ace serves as the highest card of its suit (better than a king). In low-ranking hands, an ace serves as the lowest card of its suit (under the 2). After making this final declaration, the player receives into their hand the cards from the kitty (if one was used), and the player then discards an equal number of cards. If the river was an Ace or a King instead though, then this can be a good card to bluff against a weak/tight player who folds too much. I want to be very clear that you should never try to bluff the recreational poker players or even most of the regular players because they like to call too much at these stakes.

• Ace King Off Suit
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• Ace King Off Suit
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Bid whist is a partnership trick-taking variant of the classic card gamewhist. As indicated by the name, bid whist adds a bidding element to the game that is not present in classic whist. Bid whist, along with spades, remains popular particularly in U.S. military culture and a tradition in African-American culture.^[1][2]

The game[edit]

The general play of bid whist is similar to that of whist, with four notable exceptions. In whist, the trump suit for a given hand is determined at random by the last card dealt, whereas in bid whist, the trump suit (or whether there will even be a trump suit) for a given hand is determined by the outcome of the bidding process.

Secondly, whether a trick is won by the higher-ranking card of the winning suit, or by the lower-ranking card of that suit is also determined by the outcome of the bidding process. Thirdly, whether the ace is the highest-ranking card of the suit or the lowest-ranking card can change from hand to hand, depending on whether higher-ranking cards or lower-ranking cards win in that hand. And lastly, the scoring of the game is handled differently.

Card ranking[edit]

Uptown

Trumps: Big joker, little joker, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

Non-trump: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

Downtown

Trumps: Big joker, little joker, A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K

Non-trump: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K

Kitty[edit]

In most variations, a 'kitty' of four, five, or six cards is dealt separately from the cards delivered to each player. If no jokers are being used, the kitty will consist of four cards. If one joker is being used, the kitty will consist of five cards. And if two jokers are being used, the kitty will consist of six cards.

The winner of the bid auction can use the kitty. (This is similar to the skat in Skat.)

Bidding process[edit]

In bid whist, after all of the cards have been dealt, but prior to the beginning of game play, each player may submit a bid. If a player chooses not to bid, the player may pass. Just as with the game play, the bidding starts with the player to the dealer's left and proceeds clockwise to each player in turn, ending with the dealer.

In order to bid, a player must make a bid that is 'better' (see below) than the best bid made by a previous player for the current hand. Unlike bridge, no deals are passed. If the first three players pass, the dealer (the last player) must make a bid. Most games set a minimum bid of at least four, though 'officially' three is the minimum bid.

A player's bid consists of a declaration of the minimum number of books (over the required 6 books) that will be taken (turned) by that player and their partner, followed by an indication either that the player wishes there to be no trump suit for the current hand, or of whether the player wishes for higher-ranking or for lower-ranking cards to be victorious in the current hand.

Ace King Off Suit

In determining what makes a bid 'better' than a previous bid, the initial consideration is the number of books being declared. Bidding a higher number of books than the current bid is always sufficient for making a better bid. Bidding a lower number of books can never be sufficient. If a player wishes to bid the same number of books as the current, the next consideration is whether the current bid indicated there would be no trump suit. If not, and the current bid indicates that there will be a trump suit, then the player now bidding may better the current bid by claiming the same number of books but now bidding that there will be no trump suit. If the current bid already indicates there will be no trump suit, that bid may only be bettered by indicating a higher number of books.

In some variations, a bid which indicates that there will be a trump suit, and that higher-ranking cards will win, can also be bettered by bidding the same number of books and indicating that there will be a trump suit and that lower-ranking cards will win. In other variations, however, a bid for higher-ranking cards and a bid for lower-ranking cards, each with the same number of books, are considered equal bids.A no trump bid can be made without an over bid and can be a high(uptown)or a low(downtown) bid. A no trump bid takes out a trump bid.

At the end of the bidding process, the player who has made the best bid is deemed to have won the bid. The winning bidder's indication regarding either having no trump suit, or the ranking of cards is granted for the duration of the hand. That player and their partner are now committed to taking at least the number of books indicated in the bid. The opposing player and their partner are committed to 'setting' the bidding team by preventing the bidding team from succeeding in taking the number of books to which they are committed.

If the winning bid indicated a desire for no trump suit, then prior to the beginning of game play, the winning bidder must now indicate whether high-ranking or low-ranking cards will be victorious during that hand. Conversely, if the winning bid indicated whether high- or low-ranking cards would win during this hand, the winning bidder must now declare a trump suit for this hand. In high-winning hands, an ace serves as the highest card of its suit (better than a king). In low-ranking hands, an ace serves as the lowest card of its suit (under the 2).

After making this final declaration, the player receives into their hand the cards from the kitty (if one was used), and the player then discards an equal number of cards from their hand. In some variations, the cards of the kitty are overturned (sported) to be visible to all players prior to the winning bidder taking those cards into their hand. In other variations, the kitty is not sported, and only the winning bidder sees what cards they are. The most commonly played variation is to sport the kitty when there is a trump suit, and not sport when there is no trump suit.

If there is a trump suit in the upcoming hand, and if jokers are being used, the jokers become the best cards of the trump suit (better than the ace) regardless of whether high-ranking cards or low-ranking cards are the winners. If there is no trump suit, the jokers are worthless.

Play[edit]

The objective of the play is to win tricks. A trick consists of four cards, one from the hand of each player, in rotation, the first card played to a trick generally being called the lead. A player is required to follow suit to the card led, if possible. Failure to follow suit when a player has a card of the suit played is called a renege (see Renege below). If the player cannot follow suit, he may play any card.

Some people play that if the hand is a no trump hand and a player has a joker in his hand, he must throw off the joker the first time a suit is played and the player does not have a card of the suit played. Other players play that if the hand is a no-trump hand, players who have a joker must turn in the joker for one of the discarded cards in the kitty. Many people do not like to play the latter way, because it gives an indication of what suit the bid-taker has discarded.

For trump bids, it is generally preferred to cut a suit with a trump card when the player cannot follow the suit controlled by the opponents. The highest bidder always plays the first lead card in the game. After this play, the player who won the trick leads off to the player seated at his left. The play continues in this way until all twelve tricks have been played.

When a trick is completed, i.e., four cards played, a member of the side which won the trick takes the four cards, turns them face down, and places them in front of him in a row. It is customary for one player to take in all the tricks won by his side. The tricks should be kept separated from one another so that any previous trick can be referred to, if necessary. A player may turn and look back at the last trick until he or his partner has led or played to the next player. After that, he may not look at any previous tricks, unless a renege is called.

Strategy[edit]

Bid whist is a game of skills and strategy. While you cannot audibly tell your partner what you want him to play (this is called talking across the board), there are many non-verbal cues that partners give each other during play. It is very common for a player to indicate to his partner in what suit he has a winner other than trump. This is usually done by the player playing a card from a strong suit in his hand when he is out of the trump suit.

For example, trumps are hearts and it's an uptown (high cards win) hand. A player has strong diamonds, e.g., an ace, king, queen. When that player runs out of hearts, the next time hearts are played, he will throw off a low diamond. This typically tells his partner he has some help for him in diamonds.

Skilled players typically pull trumps. This means they start off playing the trump suit and 'pulls' all the trumps from the opponents. Once trumps are pulled from the opponents, the bidding player will begin playing his offsuit. A player will not continue to play trumps when the opponents are out of trumps, saving his trumps to cut another suit that is played.

Not pulling trumps can lead to a team being set. For example: trumps are spades and the bid is uptown, high cards winning. An opposing player has one spade, a three of spades, and no diamonds. The bidding player has an ace, king and queen of diamonds. Instead of pulling trumps from his opponents, the player plays his ace of diamonds.

The opposing player with no diamonds and (for this hand) a lousy trump, will cut the ace of diamonds and take the trick. The bidding player should have first pulled trumps and then played his offsuit, the diamonds. Similarly, if the bidding player's partner takes a trick, he will give the lead back to his partner by leading back trumps, giving control back to his partner.

If the partner began playing what he thinks are winning cards, he runs the risk of one of the opposing players not having the suit played and cutting with a trump card. Also, by playing something other than his partner's trump, he opens up his partner's hand for the opposing team to see. That is, the opposing team will see what suit, other than trump, is in the bidding player's hand. The opposing team will then know what suit to keep for play when the trump suit is not played.

Renege[edit]

If a player fails to follow suit, e.g., clubs are led, player has a club, but plays a spade (or some other suit), the player has reneged. It is up to the opposing team to spot the renege and call it. If a renege is called, the player calling it must name the specific book where the renege occurred.

If the player successfully calls the renege, the team reneging loses three tricks. If the player calls a renege and cannot identify the exact trick where the renege occurred, then the team calling the renege loses three tricks.

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Scoring[edit]

Each team begins the game with a score of zero. At the end of each hand, the bidding team either wins points by making their bid or loses points by failing to take enough books to satisfy their bid (known as being set). The game ends when a team wins by achieving a cumulative score of seven or more, or loses by reaching a cumulative score of minus seven or worse.

At the end of each hand, the books that the team that won the bid are counted. There are 13 altogether, corresponding to the 12 cards played by each player plus the kitty (if one is used), which counts as a book won by the bidder's team. Each book won above six counts toward the team's bid. In order to make their bid, the bidding team must take at least the number of books equal to six plus their bid.

• If the bidding team makes their bid, they score one point for every book they took after the initial six. If they fail to take enough books for their bid, they score nothing for their books, and instead their bid is subtracted from their score. A team may win more than they bid, but may lose only what was bid. In either case, the opponents of the bidding team neither win nor lose any points.

Note: If Team A won the bid with a 5 High they must take 11 tricks (Initial 6 plus their bid of 5) to make their bid. If they only take 10 books (the kitty and 9 other books) Team A would have failed their bid (also known as being set) and they would go back 5 points. On the other hand if Team A made 12 books (the kitty plus 11 other books) on our 5 bid, we will score a total of 6 points for that hand.

• If a team takes all 13 tricks (initial 6 plus 7), this is commonly called a Boston. A team can make a Boston regardless of the number of tricks that are bid.
• If a player bids 7, this is also called bidding a Boston. In this case, the bidding player is saying that the opposing team will not collect any tricks.
• A no trump bid can sometimes score double (e.g. if you bid a four no trump and do not make the bid, it counts for eight points against your team. Conversely, if you make a four no trump bid, it counts as eight for your team).
• Rather than counting the tricks won, most players keep track of the tricks taken by the opposing team (e.g., it takes four books to set a four, three books to set a five, two books to set a six, and so forth).
• If a team wins a game by bidding a Boston, the total tally for the game counts as two wins.

Speeding up the game[edit]

Some people play that if you miss two bids (missing a bid being called a 'felony' also called 'lies') you lose. This usually happens at card parties when there are other pairs waiting to play. This may be to speed up the game, as people can go on for hours going up and down before achieving seven positive (winning) or negative points (losing). You can also speed up the game by 'going out the back door' i.e. the losing bid (points) goes to the opponent. Say one team has bid successfully for a three and later the opposing team bids four and gets set, the team with three wins.

When there are more than two pairs of players, you can choose to play 'Rise and Fly'. If one pair gets 'set', or doesn't make their bid, they must get up and let the next waiting pair sit and play. This is the most common practice when playing with more than four people. This is not done when keeping score. When the opponent reaches a score of seven or more, they have won. That's when the loser gets up, or 'rises'.

Cutthroat bid whist[edit]

Bid whist may also be played as an individual game. For most players, the standard 54-card deck with a 6-card kitty may be used. For a five-player game, the kitty should be reduced to four cards.

Ace King Off Suit

Bidding[edit]

Bids begin with least number, and indicate the number of books the player expects to take. This number is not the bid plus six, but is an exact number (a bid of 4 would require the individual to take at least 4 books). Since players do not need to communicate with a partner, there is no need to indicate uptown or downtown with their bid. Thus, the bids, from lowest to highest, are: 1, 1NT, 2, 2NT, 3, 3NT, etc. After all but one player has passed, the player with the highest bid then announces uptown or downtown plus the trump suit, if applicable, and takes the kitty. That player is then solely responsible to take at least the number of tricks bid.

Scoring[edit]

At the conclusion of the hand, each player, including the winner of the bid, scores 1 point, individually, for each trick taken. If the bid winner fails to make his bid, he scores zero points, and loses the amount of his bid. The first player to score 30 points, individually, is the winner.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Dictionary of American regional English, vol. 2 p. 229, Frederic Gomes Cassidy - Belknap Press and Harvard University Press ISBN0-674-20511-1
2. ^The Everything Card Games Book: A Complete Guide to Over 50 Games, p. 93, Nikki Katz - Adams Media ISBN1-59337-130-6

External links[edit]

• Are you game for bid whist?, Black Enterprise, Google Books
• How to Play Bid Whist How to play Bid Whist.
• Books on Bid Whist Books that teach you the game and strategy.
• McLeod, John, ed., Bid Whist, Card Games Website
• Bid Whist Sample Score Sheet A generic Bid Whist Score Sheet with an example page

If you are interested to get the best rakeback deals and private promotions on poker sites head on to PokerPro website (PS: there are plenty of options to choose from also for the USA players).

We all know ace-king (AK) is a better hand than ace-jack (AJ). But you might be surprised how much better AK is. I will show you my exact winrates with a mix of 6max and full ring texas no limit Holdem games. I played over 5 million hands.

And from the graph below, you can see that AK makes you a lot more money. AJ is still a winning hand, and you should be opening from most positions, except for early position in full ring games. But AK is entirely on another level. Let’s have a look at different possible poker scenarios.

AK vs. AJ preflop: Different approach

Ace King is open from any position on the table. The majority of the time, it is good enough to 3bet preflop with. It is in the top 3.5% of hands, even a top 2.5% hand if we hold ace-king suited (AKs). 3betting the hand for value builds the pot, and often players call with worse hands, so we can dominate opponents postflop.

Against very aggressive people that 3bet or 4bet a lot, AK can even be a profitable 4bet and stack off-handpreflop. It is a real money maker hand that provides steady wins.

Ace Jack, on the other hand, is folded from the early position if off suited, and a fold against early position opens. Ace Jack suited (AJs) is still a raise preflop from all positions, but it isn’t as good as AK. We will not be 3betting this hand that often. And we are certainly not prepared to stack off preflop with this hand – vast majority of times this would be a huge mistake.

Preflop, Ace-King is a clear winner.

Ace King vs. Ace Jack postflop: Which plays better

Postflop, the situation doesn’t change much. Ace King is still a better hand more often; let’s check why.

Ace King is a good hand to have postflop

Non-pair hands will hit a pair by the river half of the time.

Chances to hit top pair or better on the flop with AK is around 33%.

So ⅔ of the time, you will not have a pair yet on the flop. But when you do hit top pair on the flop with AK, it will be top pair with top kicker. This allows us to value bet several streets, where we get paid by top pairs that have a lower kicker. We have a chance to hit the nut flush if we have AKs. Not to mention, we can apply aggression on dry flops when we miss, and bluff with our hand.

On most ace high or K high boards, we go for at least 2 streets of value, and if it is a 3bet pot, then probably you can play for stacks. Hands like KJ, KQ, AQ, AJ, etc. will have a hard time finding a fold against our bets, as hitting a top pair with 2nd and 3rd kicker is still a decent hand in Texas Holdem.

On very draw heavy flops like 789 (2 spades), we should be just giving up, as bluffing on such board will just cost us money, if we don’t have the nut flush draw, of course.

On dry boards, for example, Q27r (rainbow), we can apply aggression and bluff. We can even hit any K or A on turn or river to improve.

When we have some draw but no made hand yet, we can go either way. Taking a free card is fine if betting and getting check-raised would be bad, as we need to fold and give up our draw equity.

Ace King is a good hand, and as you can see from the graph, winrate is pretty consistent, with no big swings.

Ace Jack does fine, but that’s about it

With Ace Jack, we will not hit top pair top kicker all the time.

But our decent kicker on A high flops still allows us to value bet our hand. We will get paid off by draws, weaker aces, and some weaker pairs. When we hit a jack, we need to be a bit more careful. There could be K or Q on turn and river, which would make our hand not as strong. Also someone passive player could be holding an overpair, that they decided not to 3bet preflop with.

The same as for AK, we need to give up on draw heavy boards. And dry flops are an excellent candidate to start bluffing.

From the chart, you can see a clear difference in winrate compared to Ace-King. While still profitable, our profit will be a lot smaller.

Difference between AJs (suited) and AJo (offsuit) is huge

Look at the difference of my winrates when I hold AJs and when I have AJo. The difference is enormous. One is close to 100bb/100 winrate, while the other one is several times smaller. Due to smaller winrate, there is also more variance involved, and the graph doesn’t go up as smoothly as it does for AJs. That is also the reason my overall chart for AJ doesn’t look that smooth anymore, despite 30bb+/100 winrate.

This will be the case for aces with lower side cards as well.

It is quite common that those off suited hand combinations are not profitable anymore, while the suited counterpart is still making us a nice profit.

Ace King Off Suit Is Called

This is all because we can semi-bluff more often when we get a flush draw or even better, value bet with the nut flush.

Multiway pots

By now, it comes as a no surprise. AK does better in multiway pots also. It hits the bigger two pairs. But for both hands and as a general rule in multiway pots, the correct approach is not to be bluffing in multiway pots. The chance that at least some player has hit something is too high.

Instead, you should be focusing on value bet properly when you hit your strong hands. I see many players, even on low stakes, to telegraph their hand. They would bet pot every time on the river with nuts. When maybe it makes more sense to go for a bit smaller sizing and get called by more hands. Then again in some spots, I would go for overbet shove, where some people might go for ⅔ value bet.

All of this comes with years of experience and playing many hands. And of course, discussing the strategy with better players than I am.

There is one scenario when having AJ is better

In one particular situation, it is better to have ace-jack than ace-king. This is the case only for suited hands.

Imagine the following scenario: We hit a nut flush with AKs. Now nobody can have second nuts. We hold the K ourselves. So it is better if we have AJ instead. This means that someone else can have 2nd nut flush. And 2nd nut flushes are most likely to stack off. Lower flushes might even find a fold to our huge bets on all 3 streets. But 2nd nut flush will rarely fold.

Of course, AK is still better for all the other typical postflop scenarios, where kickers matter. Flush vs. 2nd nut lush will not happen that often, especially compared to top pair better kicker, vs. top pair lower kicker scenarios.

Conclusion

Now you know how much better Ace-King is compared to Ace-Jack. It is better at all these scenarios:

• AK is better preflop, it meats more hands, and can apply more pressure.
  
• AK is better postflop. It has a better kicker when we hit top pair. It hits bigger two pairs
  
• AK is better in multiway pots. Again, better two pairs are really valuable in multiway scenarios.

One scenario where having AJ is better:

• If both hands are suited, and we hit a nut flush. Then having AJ is better as someone can hold second nut flush.

You also know what kind of winrates you can expect with each of those hands. Ace king is all around better, but AJ is still a winning and playable hand, we just need to be a bit more careful with it.

Useful Links:

• AK vs QQ
  
• AK vs 22
  
• Chances to win with AA
  
• AQ vs KJ