Playing AK OOP

Alright so I took like a 6 month break from poker (and this site), but now I decided to start back at low stakes just to kill some time.

Yesterday I had AK offsuit from the cutoff and raised it to .75 (.1/.25 no limit cash game), and then the button re-raised me to 2.50.

What do I do here? Do I flat call OOP? What if I miss the flop? I would think I would have to fold to the cbet?

Thanks for the help. Haven't posted here in forever but you guys were a great bunch of folks in the past.

I don't like to flat w/ AK. I either 4-bet here or fold.

Being OOP sucks when you don't know where you are or how your opponent plays.

You have the HH?

Quite often or not at micros if someone pre flop will 3bet you then you have to be willing to shove it because 9 times out of 10 if you are re-raised pre flop and you raise again it's going to be shipped even if they are holding any pair. They don't like putting money in the put to simply give it up.

However, because the button re-raise I think I'd just shove it here and you have a chance of getting them to fold. How deep are you both by the way and any info on the player? Of course if he is a tight player I could let the hand go to a 3bet, if he is loose then just ship it - he will fold more times than not and then times he does call chances are you are up against a worse hand.

Just got on the table and didn't have any reads.

In that case I'd be more inclined to flat call rather then 4 bet..The reason for this is simply because the other player might be actually a decent player and AK might be behind his/her range or AK is at best a Flip with there sort of range

So why do you want to call OOP if you think you are at best flipping? And how do you play the hand postflop?

Well since you have no reads at all you just have to play the hand cautious/Passive correct? I'd be more willing to play it aggressively against Certain People based on reads alone but against others I have to play it totally different because AK isn't the best against them...It's a strong hand but it's only an Ace high

If you don't have a read on the person, I think it would be better to flat call than reraise. If you don't hit and he c-bets, than I'd fold.

PLEASE HIDE THIS ADVICE IT IS TOO GOOD.

EDIT - Crap, this is learning poker, so I have to be nice. Basically, you don't hit top pair on the flop super often, and when you do you don't win very much. Flatting 3-bets out of position with AK is a great way to bleed money.

The reason I questioned your statement in the first place was that it didnt make sense and that I honestly wanted to know, as I have similar problems, and thought someone could give me some good advice.

I am sorry, but it seems to me that your 2nd post does not make sense either.
I refuse to belive that just cause its a new table vs an unknown player, that we should alter our game in an unprofitable way.

I mean sure we can call, but then what?

Wouldn't the same hold true that your opponent also doesn't have reads on you so he theoretically would be playing more passive. So why not take advantage of this. If he is a good player he's probably folding out most pairs <10 and if he's bad then we are ahead and getting value if he calls. I really don't thinking flatting OOP is an option what are we going to do when we miss?

4bet or fold. I would 4bet. AK does pretty well against even against the range that most 25nl villains are willing to stack with and he's almost certainly going to be folding a few hands that you're currently slightly behind. It's CO v BTN so ranges are expected to be a bit wider in most cases.

Flatting the 3bet is stupid (I don't care if it's learning poker) and anyone who would advise it certainly has no idea what they're talking about.

I mean you asked for advice I gave my 2cents I don't play rings though, so I mean in tourneys Against 1 player I tend to play it differently but tourneys and rings are different all together...Also I just find it the Cheapest and less Confusing after the said player chooses to Call us (Assuming they call your 4bet oop), then On a relatively safe dry board then what do you do OOP C-Bet out, what if that C-Bet gets Floated/Called, then how can you tell the difference between if the player is setting something up or if the player has a hand, do you what on the turn C/F, C/C, C/R, what exactly?

This is also true but in all fairness they have position on us, So what do we do after the flop if we were to miss A) A C-bet is in Order and if we get resistance then were what done with the hand? B) Where do we go or what stance should we take if say the player has Decided to just Flat call, How should we perceive this as, Weakness/Nuts?


Btw all I'm not taking offense to nothing just trying to voice my .02cents in here

Your AK is going to miss the flop roughly 2/3 of the time. Flat calling 10BB and giving up to a cBet is losing poker.

As mentioned by WVH and c9, 4bet or fold, though you're best to 4bet, especially against an unknown.

Hopefully we don't have to see a flop we are going to take it down pre a good portion of the time. If villain does flat call obviously we are in a tough position but on most boards we would c-bet and hopefully take it down post flop.

This seems like the logical play to me.

You've got big hole cards, "big" of course meaning having a better chance of being the best hand.

It's at least worth seeing a flop with. And if you happen to catch the flop, you're in great position to set a trap.

But I'm a fish; rely on the advice of those more learned than me.

Could you please explain the thinking behind this and can I pay devils advocate?

Is it the same for tournement poker, I've heard with AK that you use or lose it?

What if you had position.

What about flat calling, hitting an Ace or King and check raising.

Also with your signature, what does it mean. Poker is a game of mathematics essentially

When you flop an A, what stacks off? AA, AK, maybe AQ if they even 3-bet. When you flop a king, what stacks off? AA, KK, AK, mebbe KQ if they 3-bet with it.

When people 3-bet, their range is usually TT+/AK, with maybe some AQ/KQ thrown in. So on the boards you hit, its just really hard to get action from that range of hands. No one with QQ is going to put a ton of money in the pot when then flop comes down K25. Not to mention that you only hit top pair ~35% of the time.

So most of the time, you will miss, and you will lose the 3-bet amount. When you do hit that small percentage of the time, you won't win enough to make up for the large percentage of the time you miss.

No. Poker is a game of PEOPLE. Always has been. Is now. Always will be. If you sit down with anyone for 8 hours at a poker table, you will know them better than their husband/wife, mother, father and best friend. You will figure out how much pain they can take, how confident they are, what motivates them, their thinking patterns, their level of sophistication, how analytical they are, how much they trust themselves. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you will find out about someone at a poker table.

How can anyone decide on a line when u have no idea what the stk sizes are?

At 200bb's I have no problem flatting. At 100 I'm not as inclined to flat.

i love AK IF I get this hand i go all in alot of times .depend´s of the number of my chips

I prefer to come back over the top all in. I don't know of too many times I'd fold AK.

Nothing to see here.
If you can afford to shove just do it cuz you're at about 66% against anything else heads-up.
And if you want to play it cautious just fold(though I'd go with option 1).

I am shoving here. You might get a fold and win right there, and even if you are called, you fear only KK and AA.

If you just flat, you hit nothing most of the time, and it's really hard to play OOP.

Why give advice and sound like you know what you are talking about, which he's likely to follow, if you don't know yourself?

Well I really doubt he'd just follow my advice alone since we all have different stances on certain situations correct ...Now to put this into perspective, I'll say that I'm not wrong in playing AK my way nor is anyone else advices wrong either, it really comes down to what type of player the player is... I just advocated the cheap/Passive route to take with AK rather then blow the pot up OOP...Now also in a perfect world, If we were to 4 bet they'd either 5 bet repop giving us more info thus we can ship it in, or they'd flat and we hit an A/K on the flop but since everything about poker doesn't always come out the way we want it....

W/E way you choose to play it is up to you

While there are different opinions, there are some lines which are more profitable than others.

Flatting OOP loses a lot of value against QQ/JJ who will get scared when an overcard hits, means you lose a lot of money against stuff like AQ which may stack pre but won't on Kxx flops, and will lead to you getting value towned by AA/KK if you do hit the flop for likely your entire stack.#

AK plays well against even a tight range pre, flatting 3bets OOP in the first place is horrible so just get it in against anyone who isn't like 5/5 over 1k hands.

Well depends on his "repution" but i would like to 4bet because we are OOP.

flat is kinda bad here as we miss kinda much flops.