NL Preflop Considerations II: AKo.

I posted the first hand in the HA forum, but I'll make the other post here since my query is way more generic.

My default play (read: always-play, right now) is to raise or re-raise with AKo. Tenbob, late Saturday night after quite a few drinks in London, mentioned in passing that "calling or raising, both are fine."

So, when's calling preferable? Off the top of my head, I'd say "deep stacks and out of position," but are there other considerations that sway it? Versus a nit? Versus a maniac, I'm pretty sure I'm happy getting as much money in with it as possible. Versus a somewhat short stack, I feel good about making myself committed if I flop top pair. But versus a 18/13/2.5 regular?

Etc.

I think the biggest problem w your play of AK os (not to mention, lots of others' play, as well) is to assume you have the "best" hand - ESPECIALLY against the maniac. Let's say it's you heads-up against the mainiac. You raise pf w Ah Kh; he calls (as usual). Unbeknownst to you, he called w 6s 5s. When the flop comes Js Ks 3h, you probably DO have the best hand, statistically. The problem is, now you have top-pair/top-kicker, against a flush draw. HE (the maniac) IS going to call you. If the river is anything like: 10s, 5d, 6d, 6h, 5h, or others, he's got you down. There are many other scenarios; however, each of them ends up the same: you lose. If you'd pressed HARD pf with A K suited, maybe even the maniac would've laid it down; and though it only gives you the surrendered blinds/pf pt, better than losing HUGE on the river.

Why OOP, FP?

I guess I tend to follow Phil Gordon's advice on position and RR more often than call with any playable hand OOP just to get the hand over with or at least take the upper hand to compensate for lack of position, so I'm curious why more likely to call OOP?

I find I'm having some real trouble with AKs and AKo at the moment. Both are big losers for me, and that's statistically worrying.

I don't mind raising or reraising with AK preflop, but the problem comes with my postflop play, I think. I'm c-betting 60-70% of the pot on most boards, especially when checked to, but if I miss and I'm reraised, I toss them. I don't know if it's a bad run, but it seems like every time I play AK I miss, and my opponent plays back hard.

FPaulsson, are you familiar with using SPR (Stack-to-Pot Ratio) to plan your hands preflop? I usually try to use it to hit my target SPR for a TP hand (the most likely hand we'll have if we hit). If I can hit it by just calling that's my play. If it takes a 3bet to hit it I'll go that way. If stacks are deep I'll often call to keep the SPR high and avoid a bad SPR for my hand.

as much a i like AK, i think it bears repeating that it is a good drawing hand. i dont mind to raise or reraise with it, but i dont generally like to have a certain way i play any hand. i adjust this to the table im at. obviously there are some tables your not gonna want to raise because the maniac will call you down with his A2C and boom your done. imo, your better off to mix it up.......raise some, call some, reraise if needed, because you dont need your opponent figuring out what you have by not adjusting your betting patterns.

Because of reverse implied odds. In position, I can control the betting and exercise pot control on later streets. If I want to play a small pot, my only chance of doing it out of position is to either re-raise and get him to fold directly (which is a decent, but not great, result for AK) or to start keeping the potsize down already.

I don't have enough hands accumulated to make a real analysis of it, but if I had to guess, I'd say that AKo (not suited) is only a marginal winner out of position in the long run for me.

Just wanted to add on this.
Generally if you can get the preflop pot to 1/4 the size of the relative stack sizes or more by making a standard sized 3bet of somehwhere between 3-5x his original raise, I will usually do so and be willing to play for stacks if I flop TPTK most of the time. The lighter your opponents are willing to stack off though you can adjust your target sprs higher, although I try to stay below 5 or 6 for the most part with TPTK. If you cannot do this because the stacks are too deep than you're better off calling so you can try and maintain a small pot by keeping the spr's higher. The only problem I have had with this method is sometimes you get more or less callers than you expect and sometimes you end up with sprs that are not favorable to your hand.