This Fish Chums
Visionary
Silver Level
At a full table, there's a good chance more than one person is going to have a pocket ace. Let's say you pair your ace on the flop, now the question is who has the better kicker. If you've got a 2 or 3 you know you have a weak kicker, but what about an 8 or a 9? Mid-range kickers can be deceptively weak. Take 9 for instance. At first glance a 9 kicker seems pretty good. There are only 4 kickers higher, so you can beat 7 kickers and get beat by 4 kickers. But 4 other cards are going to be on the table. If those 4 cards are lower than your 9, then those 4 lower kickers are going to hit 2-pair. Your 9 kicker can now get beat by 4 higher kickers and 4 lower kickers. So now you can only beat 3 kickers, but you can get beat by 8 kickers. Typically, you actually want to see cards higher than your kicker come out. If you have a 9 kicker and a K flops, that K kicker would have beaten you anyway. Who cares if they win with a better kicker or with 2 pair? But if they have a 4 kicker and a 4 comes on the flop, your kicker is now beat by 2 pair. So when you think you're going to rely on your kicker playing, it's actually better to see cards higher than your kicker.