The main strategy of the game with AK.

zwbb

zwbb

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With Ace and King, you should play very aggressively. As a rule, with them you will enter the game with a raise (reraise) from any position. Although AK has a great potential, without improvement, it loses even the smallest pair. Therefore, the purpose of your raise is to win the pot without opening the cards, forcing opponents to go into the pass. You can do this either immediately, or by continuing to attack the flop.

There are three exceptions to this rule:

1. At a very aggressive table, being in the early position, you can sometimes enter the game with a call in the expectation that one of the aggressive players will raise after you. In this case, you can answer by reraising.


2. If there was a raise before you, who received at least two calls in return, call. In this situation, three or more players in front of you and showed that they have a strong enough card. It's unlikely that you will be able to knock them all out of the game with their aggressive rally. Now you have another goal - to catch a coincidence on the flop. This will work for you in about 32% of cases. And, after catching a coincidence, you get a top pair with a senior kicker. Since there is already a lot of money in the bank, the chances of the bank make your call justified.


3. If you were raised and reraised before you, fold.

When your raise reraises in return, your actions depend on the style of play of your opponent who reraised. If this player is tight and conservative, fold. It is unlikely that he reraised his hand less than one of the senior pairs or AK, and against such hands your chances of winning are unfavorable. If the player who reraises plays loose-aggressive style, then the range of hands on which he could reraise much wider, respectively, is higher and your chances of winning. Against such a player, reraise all-in.
:ciao:
 
dcproster

dcproster

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Dont go all-in.It could be result in KK or AA.
 
sryulaw

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very much with the topic, the problem is to play with who knows about it, I think everything will depend on who you are playing, and which phase of the tournament, if we always play in the same way it is easy to map and we end up being exploitable by the opponent .
In Satelites same I get to give Fold of first positions with AKs, not to have to pay an All in and to commit when it lacks one or two for the vacancy.
 
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Tricktappic

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With Ace and King, you should play very aggressively. As a rule, with them you will enter the game with a raise (reraise) from any position. Although AK has a great potential, without improvement, it loses even the smallest pair. Therefore, the purpose of your raise is to win the pot without opening the cards, forcing opponents to go into the pass. You can do this either immediately, or by continuing to attack the flop.

There are three exceptions to this rule:

1. At a very aggressive table, being in the early position, you can sometimes enter the game with a call in the expectation that one of the aggressive players will raise after you. In this case, you can answer by reraising.


2. If there was a raise before you, who received at least two calls in return, call. In this situation, three or more players in front of you and showed that they have a strong enough card. It's unlikely that you will be able to knock them all out of the game with their aggressive rally. Now you have another goal - to catch a coincidence on the flop. This will work for you in about 32% of cases. And, after catching a coincidence, you get a top pair with a senior kicker. Since there is already a lot of money in the bank, the chances of the bank make your call justified.


3. If you were raised and reraised before you, fold.

When your raise reraises in return, your actions depend on the style of play of your opponent who reraised. If this player is tight and conservative, fold. It is unlikely that he reraised his hand less than one of the senior pairs or AK, and against such hands your chances of winning are unfavorable. If the player who reraises plays loose-aggressive style, then the range of hands on which he could reraise much wider, respectively, is higher and your chances of winning. Against such a player, reraise all-in.
:ciao:
AK is a very good starting hand and generally should be played aggressively. I like to 4bet AK quite a bit. Obviously, how you play AK should depend on dynamics. The type of players you are sitting with, the type of game you are playing and what position you are in and what the opponent's positions are. Reason why i like to 4 bet with AK is simple. If you get a call and you whiff flop, you can most definitely rep KK AA QQ and get bet almost any board if we get called, we still have equity anyways, we can turn a K or an A and we can try to put pressure on hands like 99 TT and suited broadways that decide to float flop with backdoor outs. Either way we can try to take the pot down with sheer aggresion. But, if we 4bet and then get 5bet, we can comftably assume we are up against a monster and turn our hand loose. I hate cold calling 3bets with AK (especially oop) becuase we really don't have that much info going into the flop. If we hit a K he could have AA or KK and we hate folding to aggression just because we have under repped our hand and feel obligated to at least call it down each street. In that case we are going broke. Best case scenario is that villain is bluffing or we are chopping against other Ak or AQ has overplayed. (Rare)

There is merit to cold calling a 3bet like when it is against an aggro opponent and we can kind of slowplay the hand or turn it loose if we whiff without to much to ponder about. (Oop)

There are many diff ways to play it, but generally i play it aggresively for value and information. Obviously i take diff lines depending on opponent types.
 
zviko

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Whether its suited or not, i still play this hand with alot of caution . Its so easy to get enticed in the notion that its an AK. I've lost many times with it. I have a totally different mindset with this hand now. However, it really is about whats presented to you and who you're laying with especially.
 
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CryptoBlood

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If I have AK I would just increase bet a little,not too much to confuse others and then If I get good hands,just click check and others thing that I dont have nothing but most times I raise.
 
PaxMundi

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This is one of those how longs a piece of string questions.There isn't a right or wrong answer per se ,with anything in poker nothing is generic.Who are we playing when we have AK ? are there any callers ? what format is it a tourney or cash ,if it's cash what handed 6 max or full ring?.Position also plays a big part of whether we want to call or 4bet and of'course any info helps our decision.

As a rule of thumb AK plays better all in pre as the aggressor because we gain fold equity preflop and we also then realize the full equity of the hand postflop as we see all 5 community cards.So really AK in the majority of scenarios isn't a hand we want to slow play.It's a high equity hand that benefits from playing hard and fast preflop in most cases.
 
infonazar

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Interesting and useful information. Having such cards, I usually play aggressively and in my opinion this is the best decision. But of course you have to take into account the format of the tournament and your position at the table.
 
Manjerica1

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hope that with this information I can win more hands with AK, thanks for the help
 
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xsqueezer

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I think you should not dont go all-in.It could be result in KK or AA. ;)
 
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Rafael de Paula

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AK

Eu, particularmente não gosto muito de jogar com AK, pois muitas vezes tem pares na mesa e sempre levo a pior. Mas é uma mão muito boa, com ótimas chances de vitória, devemos ser agressivos sempre com essa mão!
 
vov4ik

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I'm trying to play AK in an early position not aggressively so as not to fly out of the tournament, but when the game is in full swing then I play aggressively to get more chips and get into the prize zone!
 
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Mikeloti13

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You need to bring variety in your game. You cant always play to aggressive because opponent will know that you have premium hand. You need to disguise your cards and play it differently from time to time.
 
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Aknight3

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I hate ak lol...many blow lots of chips raising early and then wont wont because they feel to invested
 
57noona

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This was interesting thread about how to play AK. Learned a lot of things and ways to play AK both pre and post flop.
 
Honeybuns666

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The odds of running into AA or KK when holding AK is so unlikely. For that reason I play super aggressively preflop. Yes those two hands would have me drawing close to dead but besides AA or KK the worst situation you can run into is pretty much a flip. A lot of times you can have your opponents Ax or KQ dominated. Get the money in with AK
 
sinatruces

sinatruces

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Aggressively play with AK its a good decision , recourse can lead a weak hand to fold.
and heavy cards maybe go in play with you depend of you betsizing
even doing ALLIN with AK because to run any heavy card and stacks you with monster hands like as AA Or KK

so its a best way to doing movement is raising with aggressive bet sizing (not allin)
 
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nmate

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i'm never folding unless it's a bubble situation...dumb or not.
 
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Pablo22

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I was surprised how aggressively AK was being played this year in the wsop main event. If I am under 20 BBs, I am going to play it very aggressively, but when 80 BBs deep I do not want to risk y tournament with a drawing hand.
 
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Tigerchef

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It all really depends on the situation. What are the chip stacks in the hand at? What position are you in? Are the other players involved loose or tight?
 
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M13A13

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With AK, AQ, AJ and A10, the game strategies do not change much, these cards all the player enters with 3 or 4 bet and even all in, this depends very much of the situation of the player in the table, has player that enters with only 1 bet and others only call.
If the player has little BB he usually goes all in, because he has a good chance of winning, but if he has around 20BB and the other opponent in the pot I was with 5BB. The player with 20BB can go all in easily to try to eliminate the weaker player.
 
Cok1973

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I dont go all-in with AK. click check or call 2-3 BB
 
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neptun1914

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As with every other hand it very much depends on your position and the type of the other players on the table. In general it needs to be played aggressively preflop because you do not need multiple players on the pot against you with drawing hand and AK is drawing hand albeit very strong one. I personally would avoid getting allin preflop unless i am short stacked. If i am first in the pot i would raise several BBs to see what will happen and try to lower the number of players on the flop. If there was moderate raise before me reraise is ok but if there was raise and reraise in front of me i will either fold or just call to see the flop. Keep in mind that despite being very strong hand AK is still drawing hand and can easily be beaten even with small pair if you do not hit one of the other 6 outs (3 aces and 3 kings).
 
soccer1996

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I agree with other players, you need to play aggressively, but very carefully, as there are different players who are not afraid to climb into the game with a bad hand and they can eventually get lucky.
 
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willko01000

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?

Depends on type of game position risk-bankroll etc.

AK is not the best hand. AA KK QQ all three are way stronger to go all in on.
 
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