Playing AK from the blinds

So I'm trying to perfect my blind play with AK. I find myself almost always 3betting when facing a raise whether its from MP or LP raisers. If there is a raise from EP I will usually flat to keep their range wide and play some post flop poker should I hit. VS steals from CO's or BTN's I'm currently 3betting 100%. What I'm trying to find out is when is it a good play to just flat with AK in the blinds? Aside from when the nit/tag opens it up from UTG?

themosthigh said:

So I'm trying to perfect my blind play with AK. I find myself almost always 3betting when facing a raise whether its from MP or LP raisers. If there is a raise from EP I will usually flat to keep their range wide and play some post flop poker should I hit. VS steals from CO's or BTN's I'm currently 3betting 100%. What I'm trying to find out is when is it a good play to just flat with AK in the blinds? Aside from when the nit/tag opens it up from UTG?

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A while back, when I had Poker Tracker, it showed AK was my most profitable hand. That's probably not surprising, but it was ironic because I always bitch about AK. You gotta play it, but you're going to miss more than you hit, so it's luster wears off in a hurry. But it was profitable for me because I was always aggressive with it preflop - taking down pots without seeing a flop.

Definitely on board with you flat calling when you have a tight EP raiser and you're in the blinds, and as I said - raising and re-raising in other spots. Another spot to flat from the blinds would be multiway pots. Give yourself a chance to connect with a straight or flush, building a monster along the way.

Anybody else care to chime in? On a site with supposedly 100k forum members discussions sure don't seem to go anywhere here.

Im no authority but I Play AK slightly different from AKs but for the purposes of this thread I will assume were talking about AKs in the BB.

In a cash game I actually play it like overs & nothing more. Ill call 3-5x from a LP raiser but im never 4betting a multiway pot. Those plays look great on High Stakes Poker but in real life, youll get your ass handed to you more often than not. I try to take more advantage of my post flop game in cash as opposed to relying on the poker gods.

In an MTT I play it like I would any OP and depending on my table reads will most often raise whatever hits me.

there isn't really much to discuss, this is why you are not very likely to get a lot of comments. AK is a hand which has great equity preflop. it is at least flipping against most other hands an opponent could have, except for KK and AA. this is why it is probably not a bad idea to always 3bet it. of course, other options you try may or may not be more profitable, depending on your opponents and their aggressiveness.

one thing worth noting is that your argument "i flat raises from EP to keep their ranges wide" is very counter-intuitive (read:wrong). mostly, EP raisers will not have a wide range to start with. and playing fit-or-fold postflop as you seem to do can be a huge leak.

So a 10/9, 8/7, 12/10,15/12 raises from EP you are gonna 3bet all these guys?

themosthigh said:

So a 10/9, 8/7, 12/10,15/12 raises from EP you are gonna 3bet all these guys?

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there is a good argument to be made about that, yes. and i don't mean "trust me, i know everything" - just run a few calculations, surely that would show some tendencies. if you are afraid to get your money in with AK preflop, just fold them instead. calling pre and then check-folding post is a MUCH bigger problem.

I could count on one hand the number of times I have won with AK as far as hitting goes but raising and they fold work well and when your shortstacked, but in the BB, if they have just called a raise would be the play or if they rasied it might be worth a call, I wouldnt risk all my chips on AK, it rarely wins on its own merit.

i tend to not play it very aggressive from the blinds. if its folded to me i will want to get it all in pre and i would 4 bet if it came to it. if i 3 bet out of position though and am called from anyone, then i feel obligated to bet any flop. and most the time ill miss. if i just flat call then if my hand hits i am more likely to get chips because the original raiser will almost alays bet an ace or king representing the hand you have

I always 3 and 4 bet it live. I know most of the players I play with and it is fairly easy to put these guys on a range. However, I will also 3 and 4 bet other hands against them as well