love to hate ace king

ok you get ace king you raise ..you get that chill down your spine when you get it not like the one when you get bullets but close..you flop a king you bet take it down .....next time you get it you raise then get insta shoved on ..you think 4 a min then call its ace queen...."yes" flop comes q k 8 raindow and your loving ace king right about now....and this was how my daily buck was goin last night ..and every other time i got finiky slick...i went uncontested.....now im in fairly decent chip standing about 40 k with 390 or so left .....and i really cant blame the ace king but my donkness...but its times like what im about to tell that make me really hate ace king...well ok blinds were like 4 k or somthing somthing high id be getting like over 8k with the blinds and antes...and this gets me out of these tourneys when i run deep every time ...i always get ace king and just want to take down the blinds right there and shove and of course every time someone just happens to have a monster pair... last night it was the queens and felt like i had some hope even down to the river.... but of course not this time bud...ace king gets me knocked out every time love to hate ace king....i try to not go all in foolishly preflopp even with aces (unless reraised) all tourney long and the one time i do even with a preemie i get screwed...i play so well and disciplined and lose it all in one shot...and as im clicking im like what the hell are you doing idiot.....these lessons are dejavu and its the difference between 1500 and 4.20

AK is brilliant, you do have to play it right though. Open shoving with a decent stack isn't one of them.

A lot of people have a love/hate relationship with AK. (Love the reference sharky, the casino I play at says the same thing, lol! )

The key is to not get married to it. Preflop it is just two high cards and as already mentioned, open shoving with a decent stack isn't the best way to play it.

There are many discussions on this forum about playing AK, might I suggest you do a search and read through them? You might find some advice that "speaks" to you and help you with your relationship with AK.

(Note: Try to avoid the terms "always" and "never". There are seldom any "always" or "nevers" in poker, or life.)

Might I also suggest you take a look at your hand histories for AK, look to see where you might have made mistakes or just got unlucky. Posting the Hand Histories for evaluation and advice would also be helpful, I know it has helped me.

GL!

I like AK better than AA - yes, you read it right and this is why...

If you get AA, you are married to them and most likely (more times than not) will be forced to push - either pre-flop or on the flop - and many times will get "bad beated" out of all your chips by some donk that hits 2 pair, a straight or a flush.

AK, on the other hand, is a hand that you can control - and make a ton of money with - IF PLAYED RIGHT.

In cash games, I use AK like a very strong draw (because that's all it is, after all). Usually just min raise with them pre-flop (depending on position, number of callers before and after me, etc.) If I miss the flop, then depending on position will c bet - but rarely will I call a raise and certainly never shove with a missed flop. I would never shove with them pre-flop in a cash game unless I was really short stacked.

In tourney play, I will most likely make a pot size raise (Again, depending on many factors - position, number of people involved in the pot, etc). If someone shoves after my bet and I'm deep stacked - if I have about a 3-1 chip advantage, then I might shove - if I'm anywhere near even - THEN I WOULD NEVER SHOVE - That would be gambling - and most likely your best case scenario will be a coin flip.

So the solution to your dilemma is treat AK for what it is - a great hand to have because it's very easy to control.

I never understand why people don't like a hand that wins 75% of the time and is in your top 5 of BB/Hand.

Also if you hit you are using one of the three flop cards, wearas with pocket aces all three flop cards can possibly help your opponent. (From Supersystem I believe)

Thanks for the info guys. I will admit, I do get too excited when I see AK. I play it way to aggressively like pocket JJ/QQ/KK/AA. Where can I find a thread on CardsChat for AK play?

I love AK. There's just so many times when you're going to pwn Ax or Kx and when you hold AK there is a much lesser chance of being up against AA than when you have KK/QQ/KQ/JJ, etc.

In tournament play, AK with less than say, 40-50 BBs, is essentially the nuts and should be played like it in most cases. It's a great hand to chip up with because you're going to totally dominate unpaired hands or flip with pairs. In cash games it's great because when you whiff in a multiway pot and others are showing interest, it's really easy to get away from.

AK gets crack way to easily it is overrated dont get to over-excited with hands like them just play them just like any other set of cards except you might want to make a standard raise with 3 times the big blind and just want the flop. The best poker players are post flop players not preflop players. Most people know that poker is all about post flop you might have the best hand preflop but post flop everything can change.

i love it when folks take a post way too personally and way out of context......read it again, over and over again bud maybe youll see what i really mean about this post....and realize ace king is what it is and that the majority of poker players have a love hate relationship with ace king....and for those who critisized the way i played it -great I had no idea it was a bad move...i guess when i said to myself "what are you doing idiot" and included this fact in the post ..i was trully in need of someone to comment on the fact it was a bad way to play ace king ...

I love AK. The reason is because you already have a high probability of winning the hand since you have the A. You also have a K just incase something else comes up. My favorite starting hands are AA, AK, and AQ. After that...KK and so on...

I have learned just as you are that they are just two more cards in the deck. It's what happens after the flop that counts but throwing out a 3-4x preflop raise to thin out the playing field isn't a bad idea.

GL on the felts

OP doesn't have a decent sized stack, if you're referring to this hand in particular

No

this is a good post, good luck in the future. KINGER

Play it strong but you have to know when to fold it. Even against pocket 2s its pretty much a coin flip.

i dont think this could be more wrong..i guess its a preference and an opinion...but i dont really understand why you would like a hand that is completely dominated by another more than the other.

AK is the bastard child of good poker hands. It has potential, but more times than not it makes me the aggressor in a hand out of position on a board that I've missed. Either I fire again and take it down, or check/raise somebody in position hoping they missed, or check/call and pray for improvement. The only problem is: BOTH your hole cards are scare cards for anybody who only has one pair. So when you retake control of the hand it's pretty obvious what you have. Or maybe now you can slow down and check-raise with tP tK.

I mean, it's just the top two cards. A great place to start, but still no pair. That's what confuses me about people who over value aces. It's just one pair. Yea, you're money is best put in pre-flop, and if another ace comes up you're going to be a favorite to win except on disaster flops, but ugh. Big Slick is a rough one for me. I still value a suited AK, I just don't like it too much when I miss 4-5 AKs in a row.