How to play AK?

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kworm2013

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I have AK at the back(maybe I am bottom).Someone raise before,and no one or several people call. My question how can I do?Re-raise or just call?
And other question ,I am not at the back,and I am BB or SB with AK. re-raise or call.?I don't think someone will fold.
 
Aces2w1n

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AK is better played headsup so if we simply flat his raise we are allowing so many people in and we are losing value with the hand.

We simply 3bet and call his 4bet hoping to go to the flop headsup... We can shove depending on our opponent but it's not the best habbit to get into unless your really bad at playing hands OOP cuz AK is one of those hands which will get you in trouble. We simply keep showing strength ever so watchfully, if we miss the board we simply cbet but after that we should surrender unless ofc our opponent has a high % to fold turn/rivers then we can possibly double barrel, I don't recommend triple barrelling because you'll end up at showdown with A high wondering where it all went wrong. I guess in theory if theres a ton of draws and you have a strong read on your opponent you could do it but I think not many people are that skillfill at this level to actually master this spot, but funny enough the lower levels at micro are the only spots you'll get 10 high paying you lol.
 
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BearPlay

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AK/AA/KK should be 3bet in most circumstances, in all positions. (Depends on player/table image/stack sizes/blinds/SPR etc).

Calling an allin with AK, on the other hand, gets tricky and often comes down to a flip and whether you're feeling lucky. (Gap Concept).
 
Thinker_145

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I don't like to 3 bet with AK OOP when there are calling stations on the table meaning there is very little fold equity. You either shove or call fish with AK. If you just call and don't hit the flop then you just fold its simple.

As far as micro stakes are concerned you should call most pre flop shoves with AK.

The only problem I have recently thought of regarding AK is that if you like to shove with it pre then every time you run into AA you are losing an incredible amount of money in that spot in the long run. You are basically gonna suck out once in a blue moon literally. Ax vs AA is the worst possible situation in poker equity wise. It doesn't happen very often though so at least at the micros you won't be losing money my shoving AK pre flop as you will win many pots uncontested and you will be called by Ax/Kx hands a lot of times.
 
Aces2w1n

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I don't like to 3 bet with AK OOP when there are calling stations on the table meaning there is very little fold equity. You either shove or call fish with AK. If you just call and don't hit the flop then you just fold its simple.

As far as micro stakes are concerned you should call most pre flop shoves with AK.

The only problem I have recently thought of regarding AK is that if you like to shove with it pre then every time you run into AA you are losing an incredible amount of money in that spot in the long run. You are basically gonna suck out once in a blue moon literally. Ax vs AA is the worst possible situation in poker equity wise. It doesn't happen very often though so at least at the micros you won't be losing money my shoving AK pre flop as you will win many pots uncontested and you will be called by Ax/Kx hands a lot of times.


Not 3betting with AK pre against a calling station are you crazy??? If these guys are calling us no matter what we want our chips in there because their range will be a lot wider, hell against a calling station a pre shove is normally +ev....

But if we don't shove and we at least hit the flop or control the hand we will get paid off with ATC... Lets say flop is K93.... a calling station will call u down and stack you off with KQ or KJ... why wouldn't we want to 3bet someone like this? :) and bet every street. We will loose value not 3betting and we need every bit of chips we can grab if we want to increase our winnings.
 
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Well said Aces2w1n.

Also if you don't choose to 3-bet such a strong hand like AK then you're being very predictable as only 3-betting with high pocket pairs, so always 3-bet. Even OOP I think you should still be 3-betting for value.

Just remember, it's only Ace-high if you don't improve and there's no need to get fancy with it at micro stakes.
 
Arjonius

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I don't like to 3 bet with AK OOP when there are calling stations on the table meaning there is very little fold equity. You either shove or call fish with AK. If you just call and don't hit the flop then you just fold its simple.
It's also unprofitable in a pretty common situation where you're ahead, the one where the opener has an unpaired hand, also misses the flop and cbets after / because you check.
 
Thinker_145

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Not 3betting with AK pre against a calling station are you crazy??? If these guys are calling us no matter what we want our chips in there because their range will be a lot wider, hell against a calling station a pre shove is normally +ev....

But if we don't shove and we at least hit the flop or control the hand we will get paid off with ATC... Lets say flop is K93.... a calling station will call u down and stack you off with KQ or KJ... why wouldn't we want to 3bet someone like this? :) and bet every street. We will loose value not 3betting and we need every bit of chips we can grab if we want to increase our winnings.
So you are saying its okay to 3 bet OOP with little hope of ending the hand there, miss your hand, check and fold?

The hand that you are talking about, we will get paid off by just calling pre. And how do you know the villain doesn't have K9/K3 or even 93? Its totally in the range of a fish to have called your 3 bet with that.

AK is my third most profitable hand and I regularly shove fish who can't fold their Axs hands and get paid off. But there are situations when there isn't much dead money in the pot and I prefer to call.

Well said Aces2w1n.

Also if you don't choose to 3-bet such a strong hand like AK then you're being very predictable as only 3-betting with high pocket pairs, so always 3-bet. Even OOP I think you should still be 3-betting for value.

Just remember, it's only Ace-high if you don't improve and there's no need to get fancy with it at micro stakes.
A calling station does not give a damn about your 3 bet stat, he WILL call you when you get AA/KK and make a big raise.

And we are going to 3 bet with more hands IP anyways so our stat won't be a completely nitty one. I am not afraid to 3 bet AQs and JJ on the button.

It's also unprofitable in a pretty common situation where you're ahead, the one where the opener has an unpaired hand, also misses the flop and cbets after / because you check.
So someone IP is able to get the pot with the worse hand? Never heard of that have we? Position is God.

What's really bad is when you make a big 3-bet OOP and someone with the worse hand takes the pot later on because we can't C-bet fish with A high.
 
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mitea2013

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AK is same color? When i-m in the bottom i limp this cards..in cash i just check.:D
 
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@Thinker_145
That doesn't mean that he wont be playing regs and if he hesitates to 3-bet AK, then I think he won't do it with AQ and AJ either which can be exploited.
 
Staneff

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Holding AK is very tricky in my experience. My opinion is to call pre-flop and if u get good flop start the aggression after that. I do it with every high not paired cards and low/medium pairs which i decide to play with. I feel it more safe play like this and works for now.

AK is better played headsup so if we simply flat his raise we are allowing so many people in and we are losing value with the hand.

We simply 3bet and call his 4bet hoping to go to the flop headsup... We can shove depending on our opponent but it's not the best habbit to get into unless your really bad at playing hands OOP cuz AK is one of those hands which will get you in trouble. We simply keep showing strength ever so watchfully, if we miss the board we simply cbet but after that we should surrender unless ofc our opponent has a high % to fold turn/rivers then we can possibly double barrel, I don't recommend triple barrelling because you'll end up at showdown with A high wondering where it all went wrong. I guess in theory if theres a ton of draws and you have a strong read on your opponent you could do it but I think not many people are that skillfill at this level to actually master this spot, but funny enough the lower levels at micro are the only spots you'll get 10 high paying you lol.


LOL +1!! it cant be said better! nice one
 
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el_magiciann

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Well said Aces2w1n.

Also if you don't choose to 3-bet such a strong hand like AK then you're being very predictable as only 3-betting with high pocket pairs, so always 3-bet. Even OOP I think you should still be 3-betting for value.

Just remember, it's only Ace-high if you don't improve and there's no need to get fancy with it at micro stakes.

I agree with this statement too, 3betting for value is important with AK.
 
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I have seen the mention of position, and its importance, come up in this thread.

Specifically regarding 3bet pots, position is less important. The reason that position matters less is that as the size of the pot grows and the size of your stack shrinks your relative position matters less and less.

Consider if the pot is $1 and you have $.01 left behind and have AA on a dry board, it doesn't matter if you are in position or out of position. You have so little to call to win such a relatively large amount that the hand effectively plays itself.

Lets take that same thinking and apply it to AK when we are OOP. If you 3bet someone OOP and they call then our relative position is not THAT bad. Board texture and opponent reads are still going to matter, but the decision of what you do post flop becomes easier and easier.

This concept is called Stack to Pot Ratio. The close those numbers get to a 1:1 ratio the more committed you can be with a relatively weaker hand.

If we 3bet OOP with AK and are called by a weaker range of someone in late position, that is good for us.
1: most fish will not often bluff in position, so if you check the flop you can expect to have it checked back - stop being scared of not winning the pot you are in.
2: it builds a bigger pot and reduces the size of our stack which makes it better for us to bet a larger sized bet on the flop when we do hit and increases our value expectation with that hand.

3bet OOP is good with AK.
 
Thinker_145

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I have seen the mention of position, and its importance, come up in this thread.

Specifically regarding 3bet pots, position is less important. The reason that position matters less is that as the size of the pot grows and the size of your stack shrinks your relative position matters less and less.

Consider if the pot is $1 and you have $.01 left behind and have AA on a dry board, it doesn't matter if you are in position or out of position. You have so little to call to win such a relatively large amount that the hand effectively plays itself.

Lets take that same thinking and apply it to AK when we are OOP. If you 3bet someone OOP and they call then our relative position is not THAT bad. Board texture and opponent reads are still going to matter, but the decision of what you do post flop becomes easier and easier.

This concept is called Stack to Pot Ratio. The close those numbers get to a 1:1 ratio the more committed you can be with a relatively weaker hand.

If we 3bet OOP with AK and are called by a weaker range of someone in late position, that is good for us.
1: most fish will not often bluff in position, so if you check the flop you can expect to have it checked back - stop being scared of not winning the pot you are in.
2: it builds a bigger pot and reduces the size of our stack which makes it better for us to bet a larger sized bet on the flop when we do hit and increases our value expectation with that hand.

3bet OOP is good with AK.
You are simplifying it too much. If I am facing a 3x open raise and I 3-bet it to 13x that doesn't even begin to make me pot committed. Even if I make a 50% pot C-bet on the flop I am still not committed.

This would be true in tournaments where you get committed sooner due to the fact that there is no such thing as top up and that stakes aren't deep most of the time.
 
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You are simplifying it too much. If I am facing a 3x open raise and I 3-bet it to 13x that doesn't even begin to make me pot committed. Even if I make a 50% pot C-bet on the flop I am still not committed.

This would be true in tournaments where you get committed sooner due to the fact that there is no such thing as top up and that stakes aren't deep most of the time.

I'm not over simplifying, and it is true in cash games too. It is relatively less accurate, but that doesn't really matter.

theoretical instance: Hero and Villain, both have 100bb's.

Villain bets 3.5 bb's Hero raises to 10.5 bb's Villain calls.

The pot has 22.5 bb's, and the Hero and the villain have 89.5 bb's which gives us an SPR of around 3.9. That is a relatively hard spot to be in, because its easier to get bluffed at, not bad but quite what we want.

So, lets say we raise it to 12bb's instead of 10.5. Now the pot is 25.5 bbs and we have around a 3.4 SPR. Its a small change in bet size, but we can commit ourself in that spot.

we can CHOOSE to commit ourself in that spot. The reason is that there is enough money in the pot that we can make basically 2 pot sized bets and be all-in. That means we can get our stack in for value with TPTK. AK is a great example of a hand like that.

Now we can then choose to uncommit ourself if we see that things are turning badly (we have TPTK and there is a straight and flush possible). Once you can get your stack in with 2 pot sized bets you have set yourself up to be committed.

You are setting yourself up to play for stacks, and about a 3.5 SPR or lower is what you want for TPTK type hands.

If you can get an SPR of 2 or lower then you are in a good spot, you get your stack in fast and easy and then you are essentially unbluffable. The hand takes care of itself, set yourself up for victory by raising. You are more likely to get yourself into a crappy spot by calling a bet with AK and getting TPTK than you are if you 3bet. 3betting makes your life easier.
 
Aces2w1n

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So you are saying its okay to 3 bet OOP with little hope of ending the hand there, miss your hand, check and fold?

The hand that you are talking about, we will get paid off by just calling pre. And how do you know the villain doesn't have K9/K3 or even 93? Its totally in the range of a fish to have called your 3 bet with that.

AK is my third most profitable hand and I regularly shove fish who can't fold their Axs hands and get paid off. But there are situations when there isn't much dead money in the pot and I prefer to call.

A calling station does not give a damn about your 3 bet stat, he WILL call you when you get AA/KK and make a big raise.

And we are going to 3 bet with more hands IP anyways so our stat won't be a completely nitty one. I am not afraid to 3 bet AQs and JJ on the button.

So someone IP is able to get the pot with the worse hand? Never heard of that have we? Position is God.

What's really bad is when you make a big 3-bet OOP and someone with the worse hand takes the pot later on because we can't C-bet fish with A high.




The biggest weakness at these levels that players tend to over value their hand. We should all means lead out on the flop remember we are OOP and hope to end the hand there but ofc if he keeps going we have to rethink the situation. If we get reraised on the flop or even shoved we really have to doubt our TPTK.

Also you need to remember these players who value these types of hands strong.. These two paired hands look great but they aren't, Just remember and when your holding a big Pocket Pair all the board needs to do is pair up and they aren't so crash hot.

It's the reason why you don't see a lot of the pros go in with 45 and bet huge with 2pair they just know it's the best way to go broke.
 
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AK is a hand you want to play at worst three way. If you c-bet and you get a caller then unless you pick up any equity on the turn or pair your ace or king, you should really give up unless you sense weakness or have a read. It's a hand that if you miss and you're OOP is a tricky hand to play because you don't know if you've been floated or where you are in the hand.

After all, ace king is only ace king high and is a drawing hand so if you don't improve, then you might as well check it down for showdown value.

Raise and even try to get the chips in micros with AK. There are people that call you with worse aces including the dreaded AQ, people that call you with junk and even people that don't care about what you're repping and want to get lucky. Against a sensible player though, you might want to think twice about it.
 
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sometimes I re-raise 3 bet with AK,and the flop without A or K, the other man check, should I bet to let him fold ,or just check. I wonder.
 
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sometimes I re-raise 3 bet with AK,and the flop without A or K, the other man check, should I bet to let him fold ,or just check. I wonder.
C-betting is standard because your opponent will only hit the flop 33% of the time with any two unpaired hands. Most of the time he will fold to your bet, sometimes people will lay down better hands, so bet the flop all the way if you 3-bet pre. On the turn you might consider checking it back if you don't catch an A or a K and fold to his river bet.
 
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I had a guy mock me for 3betting with AK last night.

He bet, I 3bet, he called.

I flopped a flush and he shoved all-in. I called. he had AA. He cried for about an hour.
 
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keep falling in love with AKo

I keep finding myself losing big pots by being super aggressive with AKo pre flop. Is this just me running into bad luck or should I be more willing to throw this hand away?
 
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depends on the stage of the tournament and the structure, AK is a great hand to shove pre in the middle/late stages of a tournament where stacks are a little more shallow, early on though don't fall in love with it unless the tourney is a turbo/rebuy and within your bankroll then i would definitely say go ahead and shove it.
 
beardyian

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Be careful not to fall too deeply in love with AK :love: as she may turn around and hand all you have to your opponent :mad:
 
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