How to play A-K

[badia232323]

I always raise with A-K, because this hand is very strong before the flop, so you need to use the power of this hand to either win before the flop or provoke heds-up against A-Q or A-J or A-T wich could be great and allow us to be in dominating position.
Even if there was raise and reraise before us, we should never resing, in this case we have to go all-in, and maybe we will find ourself against A-Q and J-J wich is not bad at all, and this give us the opportunity to win a lot of ships.
Play A-K agressevely before the flop is the right way to play this hand.

 

[feisas7991]

While I do agree with most of what you say. Even AKs against such a tight range has only ~43% of equity, therefor I'd assume flatting or folding right away (if they are uber nits, because of reverse implied odds) is a better option.
http://prntscr.com/ooy424

 

[FoxMS]

I agree with you. An aggressive game is the best option with this hand.

 

[obli]

It all depends on who you play with if your opponent reads his hands well, I prefer playing AK creative games.

 

[Twisterman]

As any other hands you should never play hands the same way every time, but AK is definitly a raise in early positions, and a push when there is a lot of limpers, but it should be a limp sometimes at least as BB against few players. Everyting depends on everything, so basic rule is probably raise, but don't be to easy to read.

IMO

 

[Boston10111]

Sure you should play AK aggressively. You’ll only hit the flop a third of the time. But if this is a tournament, especially early you shouldn’t be shoving all in. Pocket pairs have higher equity than AK. You don’t want to bust on a coin toss from shoving preflop.

Deep in The tourney you’re tying to get to the FT with a big stack so preflop shove can work.

Just depends on who you’re playing. Some with tight ranges may only 3 and 4-bet with only KK and QQ

 

[gaguilu]

good

I appreciate the advice, it's very good

 

[kraemer]

You should also start to alwways read the description of the forums you post in...
This definitively doesnt belong here...

 

[Ragequit]

AK

As Nathan William says, 'Initiative'* is King. AK will miss the flop 2/3rds of the time. That's a lot of missing. A standard open raise or 3bet allows you to take control of the hand when it is checked back to you. A continuation bet is going to take down a lot of pots when you've missed, and add value when you've hit hard. Keep raising.

*Having initiative in a pot means you were the preflop aggressor by way of being the last player to make a raise.

 

[eniseysmail]

if I get a card like an ace with a king, then on the board I often see one solid small card no older than ten.

 

[thatgreekdude]

With AK i'll always look to get it in pre-flop if I can unless i'm up against a nit. Never get too attached to AK is what i'd say.

 

[leogetz79]

to me it depends on a lot of factors. players, position, stack size etc..... right now i was short stack went all in the guy had pair of queens and i was done!!!

 

[nikolaevich87]

always depending on the situation, which table, which players at the table! Is it a cache or a tournament, how far have you come, I think that all this plays a role in choosing such a hand.

 

[Igorek1313]

АК a hand only for all in, you will invent, you will get to the low flop and you will begin to regret! it’s better to immediately all in most often something to win !!!

 

[Newzooozooo]

Hi.
It depends on what you play, cash games or tournaments. But usually I, too, prefer an aggressive game with such a hand.

 

[tauri103]

I confirm it's the right way to play with Ak preflop. but if 3bet preflop and I do not touch my flop I do not hesitate to fold this hand.

 

[eetenor]

Villain Player Pool matters

As Nathan William says, 'Initiative'* is King. AK will miss the flop 2/3rds of the time. That's a lot of missing. A standard open raise or 3bet allows you to take control of the hand when it is checked back to you. A continuation bet is going to take down a lot of pots when you've missed, and add value when you've hit hard. Keep raising.

*Having initiative in a pot means you were the preflop aggressor by way of being the last player to make a raise.

Thank you for posting.

You make a great point about being in control of villains through aggression.

We do have to be aware of the villains who play in a manner which disregards our actions or misinterprets those actions. ie Villain thinks our bets are more likely to be bluffs than value. The old hero must have AK on low boards type of player.

Micro limit players and loose wild players for example seldom think about hand ranges or having to call multiple bets on multiple streets.

My point is simply, we must evaluate our villain player pool to know how often to c-bet vs their habits not just their ranges.

Hope this helps

 

[molokheia]

hi there
yes AK is a strong hand
Even if you ga against AA or KK you should raise and see
Sometimes you lose aginst 34 or 67
Those simply makes three or four of a kind
But thats not the rule
Rgds

 

[cranberry]

With pocket hand AK - the fewer opponents will be in the game, the better. Therefore this hand must be played aggressively.