Second Poker Chestnut

Draw poker, jacks to open. $10 limit. Ante is $7. ($1 each).

Player A (next to dealer) opens with two aces. Player B plays. All other players drop.

Player A draws three cards and makes four aces. Player B draws one card.

Player A bets out, Player B raises, Player A reraises, Player B reraises, Player A drops.

This is the only case on record in which a player dropped four aces after raising once. It is unlikely that it could ever actually happen, because poker players are human beings and a human being would not drop four aces, but the situation is entirely logical.

Player B would not have stayed on a simple draw to a straight or flush, and he would have raised with two pairs, so he was marked with a draw to a straight flush. He knew that Player A knew this, so that he would not have given his second raise if he could merely beat a full house, on the assumption that any full house by Player A would be better than his (because Player A went in with a single pair of openers). Consequently, it must be figured that Player B made his straight flush and Player A's four aces are no good.