AK in tournament play vs. AK in ring games

Hi cardschat poker players,

I have an interesting question here,
why are top notch players willing to risk their whole stack with
AK in a tournament, but would NEVER risk their whole stack with
AK in a higher staked ring game. I play in a lot of tournaments
and I play in mostly $1/$2 no limit games, stacks are usually $200 to $400.
Personally I would never ever even consider going all in with AK preflop but in a tournament I would. STRANGE...........

That's part of my tournament strategy especially in freerolls to deal with donks and very aggressive players....i will go all in preflop with AA, KK, or AK until the blinds get up to about 100/200....pretty good strategy that works for me.....either your gone in a couple hours or you have a decent stack about middle of the pack


now going all in preflop in a cash game is another story....if your playing for a real considerable amount of cash and went all in with ak preflop, almost surely no one would call you so u would have to use it to make money throughout the hand rather than blowing it preflop in my opinion

It is all about the structure. players are willing to risk their tournamaent lives with AK depending on several factors, such as, amount of the blind compared to chip stack or agressive player in position when all players have limped. It is a lot easier to push your stack in a tournament because you have to build a chipstack..Ring games are about reading your opponents play and picking the right time to make a move.

wobb803 said:

Hi cardschat poker players,

I have an interesting question here,
why are top notch players willing to risk their whole stack with
AK in a tournament, but would NEVER risk their whole stack with
AK in a higher staked ring game. I play in a lot of tournaments
and I play in mostly $1/$2 no limit games, stacks are usually $200 to $400.
Personally I would never ever even consider going all in with AK preflop but in a tournament I would. STRANGE...........

Click to expand...

In a tourney, the most you can lose is your entry fee. Then you can go out to the floor and play a cash game. It's all good.

In a cash game, you could lose your house.


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THere are situations where an AK push is the correct play in a tourney. It is really dependant on too many variables to answer you. I don't think it's necessarily the 'willingness to lose their whole stack' so much as it is the right thing to do in certain situations. A reraise shove to a light 3-betting LAG in CO while on the blinds or button,... chances are they're going to fold as well as intial raiser who's caught in a sandwich play (or just an intial raiser and caller,.. depending upon blind & stack sizes, etc.).
The AK push might not necessarily be looking for a call here.... but if it is called,.. there are really only two hands they're concerned with, AA & KK.

Mainly because tournaments are played with far less chips compared with the blinds. If you have 50 BBs you are considered deep in a tournament. In a cash game it's half. I don't know where you play but 6max $1/$2 it is standard to stack with AK and I play FR and have several times pushed AK all-in preflop. Basically the more people 3 and 4-bet bluff you the stronger AK becomes. But in a tournament it doesn't matter if people bluff you a lot or if ranges are wide because usually you only have like 30 big blinds, so stacking it is pretty trivial.

Yeah basically because stacks are so shallow in tournaments.

all in with AK in atournament. i think is normal and a good bet on the early stages.

on a bubble situation i would be a more defensive player. at this point we have something real to loose.

the same at a ring table, is my wallet and my money, so the approach must be different.

Its easy. Blinds dont increase in a ring game. I mean of course your going to consider all in with AK preflop in a ring game but the play is different. In a tournament however you KNOW the blinds are gonna increase and you HAVE to gamble at some point. You just have to. So its all about the mindset players have in tournaments vs. the mindset players have in ring games.

I have seen the same thing and always wondered why depending on the buy in of the tourney i also hold back on going all in preflop with them a raise yes but all in i like to see the flop first before putting my tourney life on the line!

i would get this all in preflop- but if i raise say 3x bb and dont hit-im letting it go-no use stacking off on a bluff and hoping to hit-another scenario if i raise then get reraised but not shoved on then i would fold this-the_urge27

Think it's all been said above - mostly it comes down to stack sizes.

In a tournament, if you've got AK and make a standard opening raise of 3-4BB then a fairly normal player (ie: not a nit) shoves for 13BB, they've got a very wide range. It could be just about any pair, worse aces or other funny stuff besides. AK performs pretty well against that range and it's perfectly standard to call.

In a cash game with 100BB stacks, however, there normally have to be a lot more bets go in before someone ends up all in, and that means there's a much smaller range of hands your opponents are going to be on.

Let's say everyone's got 100BB effective stacks. An early position player opens for 4BB, you raise to 14BB with AK in the cutoff, then the button reraises to 40BB and the early position player shoves for a full 100BB.

By that stage you've gotta figure at least one of these guys for a AA / KK. Unless they're both complete maniacs, they're just not going to be doing this with low pairs or connectors. AK doesn't stack up anywhere near as well against that range and you can get away from it.

I'm finding that in the ring games that most people don't push all in preflop, at least compared to the number that do in MTT play. And the ones that do usually have a hand, not a small pair. The fact that the blinds are not increasing in the ring games gives you sort of a fixed cost to sit whereas in the MTTs if you just sit you'll be blinded out.

wobb803 said:

Hi cardschat poker players,

I have an interesting question here,
why are top notch players willing to risk their whole stack with
AK in a tournament, but would NEVER risk their whole stack with
AK in a higher staked ring game. I play in a lot of tournaments
and I play in mostly $1/$2 no limit games, stacks are usually $200 to $400.
Personally I would never ever even consider going all in with AK preflop but in a tournament I would. STRANGE...........

Click to expand...

Hi all.

This is certainly an interesting question and I agree with a lot of these comments. For me this is how I play AK :

Tournaments - Early stages if you could go all in and know that you will get called then that is arguably a good decision to make but im not sure its worth being too aggressive in the early stages since the blinds are not worth stealing. Yes its important to build a good stack but perhaps just raise 3 -4 BB get a few callers and lead out with a bet post-flop and be prepared to fold if you think you are beat. But in the later stages where blinds are worth stealing and people will be worried about the bubble push all in everytime because either everyone will fold and you get the blinds or you get called and are in a very good shape.

Ring games - I would play how I play in the early stages of tournaments maybe vary the betting a bit ie min raise if you think you will be re-raised. There is no point whatsoever going all in where you dont have the pressure of the blinds because everyone will fold and the only situation where someone will call is when they are beating you ie JJ, QQ, KK, AA and also do you really want to coin flip with someone who holds any pair? Perhaps actually you could go all in if your opponents perceive you to be loose aggressive or if you just suffered a bad beat in the last hand and they think you are tilting.

For tournaments you gotta deal with donks. And AK has about a 40% chance of hitting the flop or better so you can feel pretty confident since its about a coin flip.

LankanSoulja said:

For tournaments you gotta deal with donks. And AK has about a 40% chance of hitting the flop or better so you can feel pretty confident since its about a coin flip.

Click to expand...

Cash games have donks too, otherwise good players wouldn't bother playing in them.

The answer to this one really is in the stack sizes.

In a tournament the goal is to win every chip in play. You have a limited amount of time to get these chips so you have to get them every time theres a chance. With AK its a good chance to get chips.

In ring games you goal is to come out with a profit. Blinds dont really matter much, so you have as much time as you want to win money. You can wait and pick a better spot than AK, so many do.

LankanSoulja said:

For tournaments you gotta deal with donks. And AK has about a 40% chance of hitting the flop or better so you can feel pretty confident since its about a coin flip.

Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, the chance of pairing either card on the flop is about 32% and the chance of pairing either card by the river is about 48%.