Your opponent announces on the next hand he is going to move in pre-flop without looking. He does so. I am going to allow you to select your hand from a set of choices. Please rank these hands in order from best to worst against a random hand (they are all favorites).

A-2
K-7
Q-10
J-10

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

OK, ready? I derived my answers from PokerStove, available for free download here. I love this tool and use it often. Because it is a download, you can use it when you are away from the Internet. It allows you to create scenarios with from two to ten players, select specific or categories of cards, specify boards, and even specify cards out of play. I sure hope it’s accurate.

OK, the correct ranking is: Q-10 (by a lot), then K-7, J-10 and, lastly, A-2. If you want to see the exact numbers, let me know and I’ll put them on the forum.

So what’s the point? My main point today is that A-2 (also known as “itchy knee”) is not that wonderful a heads-up hand. And it’s even worse if you are not all-in.

Assume you are playing limit poker and everyone folds to you. If you have A-2 you probably raise. If you win the blinds, great. But what if at least one blind is a “defender” who never folds his hand pre-flop. Now you are going to either flop an ace, flop a deuce (that is roughly the same as flopping nothing since a pair of 2’s and A-high play pretty much alike), or miss.

If you flopped an ace, you will not get much action (unless you are beat) much of the time. If you miss, he will check and you will bet and he will call (if he folds, that is good but you didn’t need an ace).

If he calls, then what? Bet the turn with nothing? Check the turn and hope he checks the river? Call him down with A-high when he bets? All tough decisions.

Sure you will have these tough decisions with other hands when you miss the flop, but A-2 tempts you into calling that last bet when you not only are losing to a pair, you are also losing to a better ace. If you raise with K-J for example, you have two chances to flop a high pair instead of one, and you are less likely to spend money calling off a big bet in a small pot. To me this sounds better.

I feel that A-2 is a very overrated hand. Think about this next time you are tempted to play it.