"I'm never folding Ace,King" Quote Jason Mercier

Just a quick question, who will fold Ace, King suited or not early/mid tournament? I ask because from what I thought and what I have learnt is that Ace King unsuited especially isn't particular "great" early on or mid stage of a tournament if all your chips are at risk preflop?

People have told me to fold Ace King to all-in bets early on in a tournament yet I'm hearing from Jason Mercier himself that he will never fold Ace King at any point in a tournament, I'm not sure if he would fold unsuited Ace King.

Anyway, thoughts on this? I've always pondered this. Obviously late on or even mid I'd push especially if low on chips..

I struggle with Ace,King and Ace queen a hell of a lot and lost quite a bit if I miss the flop and someone called and got some crap two pair lol.

I would fold AKo a lot easier. I used to fold AK a lot but after reading lots of threads on this forum I am less likely to fold AK. If you lose then you lose with a top hand. I guess some see it as still losing but for the most part you will come out ahead if you see SDs with this hand.

Yeah ace king is a strong hand but sometimes isnt. You really need to reraise like 4 or 5 bet him or shove if u are short stack.

From my limited and rather sad experience with tourney AK all ins I can tell you this as a beginner to beginner :-):
AK is a nice thing but as for going all in preflop you probably know that even against the smallest pair you are less than 50 percent to win, which should answer your question. Fold it in situations where you think villain is likely having a pair and you dont want an all in for a coinflip.

If I'm facing a ~ 3XBB raise with a decent reraise over that, I'm folding AK preflop probably 90% of the time.

The thing is Mercier has a really wild image, his opponents know that he's capable of 3betting and 4betting with nothing so they'll widen their raising ranges as well. As a result, it becomes pretty tough to fold AK for Mercier.

Also, saying he's never folding AK is different than saying he'll play them for all his chips early on. Live tournaments start very deep, if someone 3bets him he'll probably just call and keep the pot small.

If you're not Mercier, have a tight image and someone 4bets you, you can't like your AK.

I like what TJ Cloutier says.... "AK is a strong drawing hand"... Ill bet more people bust out with AK or AQ in tourneys than any other hands.

They bust out because many people look at it as the best hand. Even after the flop people still tried too hard to stay in a pot with it. Desperation move too

I'd like to know what the context of the conversation was when he made this statement. I can't imagine him or anyone saying such a thing out of the blue...

i think there are definitely spots where jason would lay down AK. he just gets to say stuff like this cause hes a pro.

i took a dude down with aces against his ace king off when he pushed his entire stack preflop

Pre-flop early tournament I think it's nonsense to push with AK. The only times I would maybe do this is if there was an 'all-in goblin' at my table. I've been in tournaments many times with these guys. They simply All-in with pretty much any 2 cards. Generally they get lucky with 8 3 off or something like that and double up. Many times they will continue to do this until someone at the table with a pocket pair or something like AK finally calls them and puts them down.

Otherwise AK is simply something I may raise/call a raise with pre-flop (especially early tournament). If you hit, great continue to bet, or even push then, however putting my entire stack at risk early tournament I'm not too fond of; especially when my opponent may have a PP or some ridiculous rags that could just as easily catch because they could care less about the outcome of the hand.

Just my .02

wth AK I would raise pre-flop and consider re-raising. it is easy to bust out with these cards. anybody you're up against could have or crack a pair when the cards come out.

the saying is: its not who wins the most but who has the most chips that wins the tourney. so playing conservatively early and mid tourney is what i'd do based on my current playing style. however card styles change too.

I am a noob but I will lay down AK easily if I am met with an all-in decision, it's not that hard. Even if I have AKs I have laid it down if I absolutely plan to stay in the tournament, and if the opponent is tight so I suspect AA or KK.

Now this is in a "normal" tournament situation, but in the freerolls I play you see people go all-in in droves in the start of the tournament. So it might happen that I do go all-in with AK or QQ in the beginning just to get some padding on my chip stack, but I fully expect to be busted.

Depending of whom am i playing i will fold . At the begining of the tounament though i will fold it because of the equity. At the CC freerolls i never shove with AK at the beginning of the tournament. Almost never. An all in at the begining means AA ,KK,QQ most of the time. Also a hard reraise preflop means the same thing.Few ocasions when i respond btu only when i know the opponent has AQ,AJ etc. Not to say the fact that AK always loses to AQ There are reckless ppl even at CC tournaments (i also make mistakes but not the basic ones) that shove with AQ, AK, AJ, KQ at the beginning. But that is a mistake. If you make this mistake one time you will make it again and it will be hard to correct yourself. That's one of the bad habbits of the public freerolls.

Is there a link or article where he said this? As a pro, I don't think he is saying 'ill never fold AKs. EVAR.' However, it might be in a certain situation or against a certain player where calling/shoving with AKs is just +EV 100% of the time.

So, it depends entirely on the context of when he is holding AKs.

I don't know if this was the original quote OP was referring to, but him and Liv Borree say theyre never folding in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vguyJECvgcI#t=3m38s

3m 40s into the video

I think he is referring to preflop, and theres a little sarcasticness in the video.

yeah it was the video with Liv boree where she said she busted out of a tournament with A,K and got pushed to go all-in.

She and this woman was chip leaders and the chipleader pushed and Liv had Ace,King and Liv says "what do you do?" Jason replies "I'm never folding Ace King" and she busted to a pair of Kings anyway.

I agree and I will fold Ace,King early on just wanted opinions.

AK isnt that strong everyone overates it, its not even a made hand. if the tournament is early you should only be using chips on a few premium hands ak in cluded and should be risking minimum, during mid stages and when you are around 10 bb and short stacked you do need to take more risky 50/50s nd try to double up with it if the situation is correct.

i have only this to say to win tourneys you have to win your races so if you think the guy has aces or kings fold anything else play it as you see fit in that situation getting it all ion the middle pre flop isnt that bad even if you lose its better than getting your money in with aces and getting busted out against a fool who thinks hes getting odds with 76

While I agree with many of the opinions here I will add that in a tournament, if you get a read that someone is playing a smaller pair aggressively like nines or tens, AK is a particularly good hand to come wayyyy over the top and put THEM to a decision for a large % of their chips.

Basically, you want to be the aggressor with them and not vice versa.

Well, what he means is he's never folding AKs in that situation. There are only two hands that you're afraid of and neither of those would (usually) flat call PF, so I'm never folding AKs there either.

I dont know if its just me but i play $1 - $10 MTTs and always see people push with AK even after the flop when they hit nothing, i can definately say that even though i cannot see the cards very, very few people fold AK at these limits...people say they would but they never do, time after time do i get sucked out on with AA/KK/QQ after the flop and get rivered, only to be beat by AK/AQ or lower... maybe its the low stakes i play but i rarely get to play players who respect their chips enough to fold AK even if AA is staring at them in their face, please tell me what/where all you people play that say your folding AK after a reraise.
Personally i think at the levels i play, 80% of the time it depends on the player your up with..the other players at the table and of course your read. I have to admit i find it hard to fold AK when all i see all my 8 - 16hr shift is people pushing with AQ,AJ,AT,KQ,KJ, i think about any read i have and i am constantly looking back at my hand history to find any patterns in speed of betting and size etc. i dont like risking all of my chips with AK because you usually get sucked out on anyways haha (or just lose to the better chance hand 22)



If there was no river they'd be no fish

Well yeah, but that's the situation in most cases when you hold Ace,King you only dear Aces or Kings which is all honestly is the same early on or mid etc.

Exactly. Raises don't mean anything to anyone really at low limits.

By the way when you raise Ace,King preflop and get a caller or more which at micros is quite often then people say you should always C-bet everytime even if you miss. Whats people thoughts on this? Most of the time, someone has hit something and will call which means your wasting chips. I don't know the best way to approach that situation.

Not really. If it was the original UTG raiser 4betting, it'd be a tougher decision, especially if he's tight. It's a lot more difficult to put someone on AA or KK when they flat call PF.

Mercier folded AK to Candio in this years WSOP.

AK hates me. Therefore, I fold it when I need to.

This reminds me on one of my toughest decisions in tournament poker to date. And it still bugs me.

I'm a tightish player, early on in a tournament I'm more likely to try and see a flop with AK, that means calling raises, not 3-betting or 4-betting PF. If I hit then I can decide what to do, but most likely I'm going to go all in if I can, extenuating circumstances aside.

Later in a tournament I play a bit more cautiously. I'm still raising with AK from any position, but I'm less likely to call all ins and large raises depending on my stack size. If I'm medium stacked I'm especially cautious. AK is the ultimate coinflip hand, I always assume its a coinflip, its easier that way rather than trying to place my opponent on a pocket pair like 99+ or a weaker ace like AJ or AQ, many times they're playing either equally.

Its basically a decision for my tournament life, do I have enough chips to fold and pick a better spot? Will my fold equity be too depleted after folding, or will it be depleted in a few rounds of blinds and antes? How much would I have left if I did make the call? If I'm medium stacked, not alot unless my opponent is a short stack. Basically, if I have the chipstack and its too much to call, I'm folding PF. If I can call the raise without giving up too much, I will.

That's basically my medium stacked AK strategy... for short stacked its an instacall anytime, for a big stack it depends how big my stack is, and my opponent. A big stack with large blinds and antes can disappear really fast and turn into a medium or short stack if one gets too spewy.

AK is probably one of the hardest hands to play correctly. Pocket pairs are easy enough, because when overcards come on the flop you can fold. I'm naturally cautious with weaker aces like AJ or AQ, but they have many of the same problems as AK. AA, KK, and QQ are easy, shove and complain about a cold deck if someone beats you or turns over a higher pocket pair. Only thing that might be worse than AK to play is JJ, but if you're tight like me, you play it like 88 or 99 anyways, flop a set and fold to reraises if theres overcards on the board.

I play AK like any other good starting cards depending on position. You have to raise in early position especially to get the junk to fold but raise enough to get as many decient hands out too, you dont want a late position small pair calling a 3x bet. This all depends on how the rest of the table has been playing too because your acting first and dont really want to face the all in pre flop with too large a bet. Late position I prefer to limp if possible but call minimal pre flop bets in case the cards hit it will be hard to tell what I have. Mid position it all depends on players stacks etc but mostly play like late position. That all said and that is probably totally depending on too many things but I dont mind going all in with that hand in many cases either, I guess I switch it up a lot so I would rather see a flop cheep but not totally afraid of an all in with AK.

Personally i love to C-bet in most situations especially in late position and if they call, i make another decision on the turn, i have more of a read and if you have more outs to hit on the river you can usually see it for free if you C-bet on the flop (if you dont it always causes the opponent to bet on the turn), if your read is they are good and you have a bad hand, i'd decide to play it slow, see the river for free, look as strong as ya can online and try get the showdown for free or fold if they bet.
The best option is always different although i find the best in most situations is to look strong and C-bet the turn and the river and represent a strong hand to make them fold which works often.

I C-bet around 92-95% of the time.

The simple and correct answer is it Depends.

Early in a tourney, especially one of the FT guarantee rush tourneys with rebuys, I'm open shoving or re-raising all in with AKs. It's one of the 3 hands that I'll make that move with and IMO the risk/reward is worth it in those situations.

Mid to late though it really depends on too many circumstances to make a claim whether I will or won't fold them.

I dont know about everyone else, but AK at the end of a Tourney no worries push & shove all you like, but if in put in a all-in early stages in a tourney, it would have to be with them suited, and against the repeat all-ina. Othewise fold those suckers and get on with the mission at hand.


To Finish First - First You Have To Finish.