There’s such a profound difference in cash games vs. tournament play with top pair-top kicker. In tournaments, after the flop, betting top-top on a mixed board (three suits and few draws) is a relatively easy play. Cash-game play is much more difficult. Don’t get me wrong; top-top is still a betting hand, but this hand has a different effect on play in cash games. Let’s play a hand and examine why.
You’re at a nine-handed $2-$5 no-limit hold’em table where the buy-in is $200-$500. You buy in for $500, or 100 times the big blind. The table is a mix of loose-aggressive and tight-aggressive players. You’ve been playing for 30 minutes and have a decent read on the players. The stacks vary from about $200 to $650. This is an important factor that most players seldom appreciate or understand. We’ll get to that a little later.
You’re in the cutoff seat and you’re dealt
You’re last to act for the rest of the hand. The first to act after the flop will be the big blind with $210, followed by the limper ($275), the preflop raiser ($650) and you, with $485. Again, stack size is important in every hand of a cash game.
The flop:
What a curious call. If the big blind were on a draw he would only be getting a little more than 2-to-1 pot odds, plus his stack has just $60 left; why not shove? Most draws require at least 3.5-1 to make a call. Why would a player take less, and not shove the remainder of his stack? The pot is $387.
The turn is the
The river is the
Let’s look at the blind’s possible holdings after the flop: a set of aces, 10s or nines, A-10, A-9 or 10-9 for two pair. Six holdings that could beat your top-top, plus drawing hands are so prevalent after the flop.
The real crux of the problem for the A-K suited was his calling of the raise preflop and not showing any strength, which allowed the big blind (after the small blind folded) to enter a pot of then $42 for an additional call of $10 or 4.2-1 pot odds.
The next big problem for top-top is after the flop when the big blind bet $25 and the next to act called. At this point the top-top player should’ve realized both players really liked their respective hands.
What I would’ve found most disturbing if I were playing the hand is that with only $210 in the big blind’s stack he was willing to play a big pot by his lead-out bet, which would make him most assuredly pot-committed if there were a raise. The old motto of big hand, big pot, big commitment still holds true in all poker games.
The big blind won the pot with three nines. Top pair after a flop when no one improves will only win you small pots. When opponents hit the flop your whole stack is in danger.
— Antonio Pinzari has been playing poker professionally since the ’70s.