Playing AK preflop?

Was thinking of a general strategy when facing a 3-bet.


Usually a 3-bet means villain has AA, KK, QQ, AK, JJ and sometimes 10s. Obviously chances of the first two may be lower as my hand blocks them.

Assume each player has 100BB.

If I raise first to say 3BB and face a 3-bet of 9BB I can call and hope to hit the flop.

If villain opens pot with 3BB and I 3-bet to 9BB and then villain 4-bets to 27BB, I should fold as it implies villain has AA or KK. Pot odds before the flop seem good but they arent so good if you can really put your opponent on these two hands.

I know texture and villain's stats (e.g. VP, PF) play a large part but as a general rule is the above strategy a decent starting one?

If AK misses the flop it is 25% at best and it maybe in danger of villian turing two pair aces up on you or hitting their gutshot broadway.When AK misses the flop it is a trash hand. Raise 2.5x the blinds to get someone with a lower Ace in the pot.If 3-bet atleast call and see a flop you are rarely dominated with the big AK. Call in early position. Always C-bet except wet boards. AK is a great all in hand as it is rarely dominated and has your dominate likely calling with dominated big ace themselves .cheers!

I think you should fold when the villain raises to 27 BB. AK is still a drawing hand.

Any general strategy you formulate has way more variables than you've listed here.
It would depend on your position, villains c-bet frequencies, 3-bet & 4-bet frequencies, effective stacks, board texture, players behind to act...etc.

My advice would be to NOT have a "general strategy", or an idea of how you're going to play a hand that's independent from the variables that directly influence its worth/strength.

Its why people tend to post hands they've played with these variables in order to see what needs work or was successful, and then from that formulate a strategy

The only general strategy I can think of is don't fold it to 3-bets...

playinggameswithu said:

If AK misses the flop it is 25% at best and it maybe in danger of villian turing two pair aces up on you or hitting their gutshot broadway.When AK misses the flop it is a trash hand. Raise 2.5x the blinds to get someone with a lower Ace in the pot.If 3-bet atleast call and see a flop you are rarely dominated with the big AK. Call in early position. Always C-bet except wet boards. AK is a great all in hand as it is rarely dominated and has your dominate likely calling with dominated big ace themselves .cheers!

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"Rarely dominated" ... ... ... Wat

AK is a hand I generally won't fold to a 3 bet so I am usually calling UNLESS flatting a 3bet puts me OOP AND it commits a big chunk of my stack. In such situations I am fine with shoving, depending on villain.

Even against KK you aren't entirely dead.

I never do 4bet with AK, not make a bluff out of this hand. But also I will never fold to 3bet with AK.
I want to see the flop.

True,
The same here I am calling most bets with AK as long as it is not for a large chunk of my stack, and even then pending on how the game is going as well.

If im OOP i would fold his 3-bet, doesn't matter his stats, the reason is you will miss the flop 2/3 times and it will get you in trouble more often than not. If im in position i would call most of the time, depends of his stats.

In small stakes poker or free rolls AA and KK are often all in so no worry about 3 bet.
I would call and see the flop, but not 3 bet a raise.

Stack sizes have a lot to do with how you play this hand, If I am short, for instance in a tourny where effective stacks are super shallow, 4-betting and shoving with this hand. In cash games where you are frequently 100BB+ deep, you should typically be happy to flat a 3bet here and take a flop.

I hate AK. I always limp with this hand. Maybe it is not a good strategy.

Stack sizes play the biggest factor here. When you get 4-bet you cant ever flat here, because it forces you into a check-fold for a quarter of your stack when you miss. This is a fold or shove based on your read of the situation. Something to note is that when you are playing this shallow someone could easily 4-bet you with a lower pocket pair, making it a much more favorable shove with fold equity.

MrSamsa said:

"Rarely dominated" ... ... ... Wat

Click to expand...

Yea AK is not dominated often...except aces though that is infrequent.

playinggameswithu said:

Yea AK is not dominated often...except aces though that is infrequent.

Click to expand...

I think the terminology here is crushedDominated refers to kickers which pp's don't have

If villian makes a strong 3 bet, and I put villian on AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 10 10, I will often lay AK down. The hand is crushed by AA, and a dog to most all other pairs.

But there are those who prefer TT or even 99 or 77 ; My friend for example love 77' pair he thinks 77 is invencible.

I usually just call with a-k offsuit to bets in any position

If i'm on or near the button and it's raised I just flat call If I limp or make it 2.5 x utg and it's raised to 6 x I just call. Ak doesn't like a lot of players and it's ok to go heads up with it to medium strong raises and not call maniac bets of course. It's perfectly ok to think your up against a big pp just less likely AA or KK cause you have some. Forget it and just smooth call the flop could go A-9-6 and if he has pocket kings then it's a bad flop for him same as QQ or JJ. It's always just less likely he has the big set. If the flop rolls 7-8-3 ugly Rainbow flop then just check fold cause even pocket 99 beats you and your drawing slim. Of course he could have jj and you flop 10-j-q you never know gl. As said by other members here stack size is crucial if he's is short and your crushing then ak on the trash board can be a check and re raise him all in he may just call any with aj thinking ace high is good,but what I usually do is check call and see the turn if it's something like 3-7-8-8 Then i'll go ahead and put him all in. Conversely if your doing just ok vs a big stack then it's ok to fold to trash boards after you called the 6x raise unless you have a live tell and really think he is betting from position with say kj suited and also missed and is simply buying the pot,then reraise unless he isn't that good because people take nl to literal and may shove so in these scenarios where you think he missed just call,call sure he may hit and he's bluffing to what looks like value bets so you keep calling with 2 cards to risk and if you think he missed the river,don't check just play a defense bet of 35% of the pot he may fold,or call better yet make the same bet when a K falls on the river he may raise it up so you can also flat call that one pair to a WIN.

hard to play sometimes with Ak, but certainly play position of the odds against opponents., The problem is that most of the time you're ahead of the flop, this makes you go ahead. and often on the river the deck punishes.

AK is drawing hand on one side but on the other you should not just limp with it,call about 6x time raise would be fine.

When I have AK I raise first and call or 4bet after 3bet,depends on the opponent\s. Sometimes I limp or call preflop with AK, beacause I don't know how to play right with AK. ))

I particularly play with a lot of caution Premium hands, since we tend to be aggressive with these hands. Nowadays being honest with all of you, regardless of any questioning I can fold this hand in some situations. One of the situations that can lead me to take a fold, is to play against a very aggressive villain, where he has the possibility to eliminate me from the tournament. I came to the conclusion that our tournament is not just about cards like AA, KK, AK. I prefer to be cautious and expect opportunity to earn some money by coming to ITM.

AK can be a strong hand, but its strength or weakness is heavily dependent on the game you are playing, the players, your position, and your situation. The difference between solid winnings and huge losses is often contained in how the player plays that one hand

AK is a drawing hand and depending on the player 3 betting should be played as such. If it misses the flop it's trash.

AK preflop

champ_mc99 said:

Was thinking of a general strategy when facing a 3-bet.


Usually a 3-bet means villain has AA, KK, QQ, AK, JJ and sometimes 10s. Obviously chances of the first two may be lower as my hand blocks them.

Assume each player has 100BB.

If I raise first to say 3BB and face a 3-bet of 9BB I can call and hope to hit the flop.

If villain opens pot with 3BB and I 3-bet to 9BB and then villain 4-bets to 27BB, I should fold as it implies villain has AA or KK. Pot odds before the flop seem good but they arent so good if you can really put your opponent on these two hands.

I know texture and villain's stats (e.g. VP, PF) play a large part but as a general rule is the above strategy a decent starting one?

Click to expand...

Very seldom you can put someone exactly on KK-AA. If you have such exact information (have played tons of hands with such a player and know his play very well) then you can easily fold otherwise it's better to stick to the 3-betting range against which AK suited has 45.7% (AA-10/10, AKs, AKo, AQs). Some players add A2-A5s to their 3-betting range so then it makes AKs 51.9% favorite.