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Blue_Fossil
Rock Star
Silver Level
Back in the glory days of full tilt poker, I was using Poker Tracker to analyze my play. AK was by far my most profitable hand (J 10 was my least profitable). That's probably not earth-shattering news. The reason was I was aggressive pre-flop (raising and re-raising regularly) and also consistently following up with c-bets. Most of the time, that was enough to win the pot. There were also rare occasions when I actually connected with the flop with AK 
.
Anyway, if someone is still playing back at you even after your early aggression, they probably have something and you should be willing to let your hand go. Barreling forward with AK and nothing else in that situation is not wise. Another possibility is that your opponent(s) has determined you are aggressive with a wide range of hands and simply don't believe you are strong.
If there is a bottom line, I guess it is that sometimes the other guy has you beat. An AK that misses turns into a weak hand pretty quickly.
. Anyway, if someone is still playing back at you even after your early aggression, they probably have something and you should be willing to let your hand go. Barreling forward with AK and nothing else in that situation is not wise. Another possibility is that your opponent(s) has determined you are aggressive with a wide range of hands and simply don't believe you are strong.
If there is a bottom line, I guess it is that sometimes the other guy has you beat. An AK that misses turns into a weak hand pretty quickly.
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SwiftHax
Rock Star
Silver Level
Hahaha, nice hand. I love when people stack with AA on any kind of flop.
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Vera_love18
Rising Star
Bronze Level
With "AK" need to play as aggressively. From any position to do raise (reraise). without strengthening the hand lose even the smallest pair of deuces. Therefore, the main task of the owner AK - pick up the pot without shoudana. Hence such tactics as aggressive pre-flop and on the flop (if one of your opponents made the call rate).
From this time-tested law there are three important exceptions, which should be remembered every fan of poker.slowplayIf you and then distribute AK in early position , and gathered at the table very aggressive opponents , you may well just call the blinds . Your calculation is simple - one of the aggressors , loose and maniacs sitting behind you , be sure to begin and will raise bluff . You are just waiting for this and put it before the fact of a very strong move : a re-raise from early position . Just sick in the head player (or owner of AA, KK , which is rarer ) will continue to play with you in this situation.
Femeli sweatBefore your move in the drawing has already been raised , and at least two callers . Opponents showed sufficient strength of their hands , and knock them reraise would be very difficult . In this situation, you have to play call. Your task is changing. Now it is important to catch the match on the board . On the flop, you will manage to grow in 32 % of cases. In all these cases, you will receive top pair with top kicker. Since the bank a lot of players - your luck ( and actually delicate calculation ) will be well paid , and pay for all the other 68%.Raise / reraiseWhat if someone has already raised and reraised preflop. Pot odds stubbornly require you to pass . Another thing, if followed by a re-raise in response to your own hike . It all depends on your playing style reraise . If it is tight and conservative opponent - please fold (he had no less than top pair , lottery blessed by the Pope ) . If it is loose and aggressive opponent - think about a 4-bet all-in , or because such an opponent 's hand range for aggressive action is very wide, which means that in most cases you will take the bank itself .AK TournamentAce / King - this is the hand that almost always need to be ready to go all-in. However, the specifics of tournament fighting requires a more cautious approach to the Big Slick . Your goal - to win the whole tournament , and not the hand , so go with AK broke or reraise preflop stage - a sign of stupidity . Even two deuces are more likely to succeed against AK pre-flop (53/ 48) .
From this time-tested law there are three important exceptions, which should be remembered every fan of poker.slowplayIf you and then distribute AK in early position , and gathered at the table very aggressive opponents , you may well just call the blinds . Your calculation is simple - one of the aggressors , loose and maniacs sitting behind you , be sure to begin and will raise bluff . You are just waiting for this and put it before the fact of a very strong move : a re-raise from early position . Just sick in the head player (or owner of AA, KK , which is rarer ) will continue to play with you in this situation.
Femeli sweatBefore your move in the drawing has already been raised , and at least two callers . Opponents showed sufficient strength of their hands , and knock them reraise would be very difficult . In this situation, you have to play call. Your task is changing. Now it is important to catch the match on the board . On the flop, you will manage to grow in 32 % of cases. In all these cases, you will receive top pair with top kicker. Since the bank a lot of players - your luck ( and actually delicate calculation ) will be well paid , and pay for all the other 68%.Raise / reraiseWhat if someone has already raised and reraised preflop. Pot odds stubbornly require you to pass . Another thing, if followed by a re-raise in response to your own hike . It all depends on your playing style reraise . If it is tight and conservative opponent - please fold (he had no less than top pair , lottery blessed by the Pope ) . If it is loose and aggressive opponent - think about a 4-bet all-in , or because such an opponent 's hand range for aggressive action is very wide, which means that in most cases you will take the bank itself .AK TournamentAce / King - this is the hand that almost always need to be ready to go all-in. However, the specifics of tournament fighting requires a more cautious approach to the Big Slick . Your goal - to win the whole tournament , and not the hand , so go with AK broke or reraise preflop stage - a sign of stupidity . Even two deuces are more likely to succeed against AK pre-flop (53/ 48) .
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SwiftHax
Rock Star
Silver Level
Also, I think AK is the third best starting hand in holdem. Against QQ it's roughly a coinflip, but when it's pitted up against KK it's only a 70:30 dog compared to QQ which does far worse with 80:20 equity.
But as someone here once said: the better post-flop player you are, the more money you will win with it.
But as someone here once said: the better post-flop player you are, the more money you will win with it.
Thinker_145
Visionary
Silver Level
Also the probabilities that someone has KK while you have AK is much lower than QQ vs KK.
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IloveNAP
Enthusiast
Silver Level
My trouble with AK is getting shoved after 3 betting or even 4 betted. Getting it in seems unprofitable as at best it is a coin flip. I rarely see anybody get it in with AQ anymore. Calling a 4 bet also seems unprofitable as now we lose the initiative and we dont even have a made hand. I definitely need to work on AK pre/post flop play.
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nykaktak
Rock Star
Silver Level
well it is possible to play AK very variously, it depends on a position and from number of people who raised a rate, I for example with AKs on 1 reraise will always try to rearrange, but certainly when before me there were 2-3 increases, whether I will think once again it is necessary to come to me into bank
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SwiftHax
Rock Star
Silver Level
Yeah, exactly. You're blocking AA and KK hands.
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nykaktak
Rock Star
Silver Level
there are fans who stack 2-3 times bigger than your are in for a raise is well worth AK will put you all in with JTs and it happens that they get into a match
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eweeparker
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Obviously this is a 'who is in the pot' situation and like I'm sure you would agree, I hate hearing this statement. I hate reading theory books that say, 'use your best judgement', I'm like, "well then why the hell am I reading this?". To give you a more direct answer, in my opinion anyway, is like a few other said:
Re-raise here between 3x - pot. You are going to want to get worse hands to call, and more importantly, you're going to need as much information as you can get and information costs money a great deal of the time in poker. And you really really don't want more than one opponent if you can help it.
There are a few more factors to consider first though. How much is in your stack, and more importantly, how much is the biggest effective stack at the table. For different stack sizes, the correct play can change drastically, not even taking into consideration the skill level or habits of your opponent(s).
The stack sizes not only apply to you, but they apply to the implied odds you'll be giving to your opponents as well. If you make a small sweetener or feeler raise here, all you'll do is sweeten the pot for set miners and put yourself at a huge disadvantage and likely encourage multiway pots. You will make your decisions easier postflop, you'll create less opponents, you'll likely force out set miners, you'll lessen implied odds if you don't marry your hand, and you'll have a very good idea of your opponent(s) range(s).
And for God's sake don't just shove it in, it is NOT a tourney.
Re-raise here between 3x - pot. You are going to want to get worse hands to call, and more importantly, you're going to need as much information as you can get and information costs money a great deal of the time in poker. And you really really don't want more than one opponent if you can help it.
There are a few more factors to consider first though. How much is in your stack, and more importantly, how much is the biggest effective stack at the table. For different stack sizes, the correct play can change drastically, not even taking into consideration the skill level or habits of your opponent(s).
The stack sizes not only apply to you, but they apply to the implied odds you'll be giving to your opponents as well. If you make a small sweetener or feeler raise here, all you'll do is sweeten the pot for set miners and put yourself at a huge disadvantage and likely encourage multiway pots. You will make your decisions easier postflop, you'll create less opponents, you'll likely force out set miners, you'll lessen implied odds if you don't marry your hand, and you'll have a very good idea of your opponent(s) range(s).
And for God's sake don't just shove it in, it is NOT a tourney.
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SwiftHax
Rock Star
Silver Level
Well AK is a 60/40 favourite in these situations and I don't think it's a profitable situation if you're just calling a shove with no money invested into the pot.
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SwiftHax
Rock Star
Silver Level
Saying that AK is a drawing hand is incorrect imho. It has 47% pre against any PP, 60% against two undercards and 70% over any unpaired Ace or King. Pocket deuces have 53% against overcards and a 20% dog against any PP.
AK has better equity than decues against most opponents ranges, 55% or so and deuces only 45%. If you call AK a drawing hand, please tell me what a drawing hand exactly is.
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SwiftHax
Rock Star
Silver Level
And that's going to happen 20% of the time. How often are you told not to overplay your aces? It's not an invincible hand.
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Ubercroz
Visionary
Silver Level
And for God's sake don't just shove it in, it is NOT a tourney.
Why?
I don't understand the principle of not shoving AK? If the pot is enough that you are getting 1:1 odds and the other guy will either call, or shove himself, with QQ+ and AK then you are fine.
The only reason you wouldn't want to shove is if the guy only ever 3bets/4bets with AA and KK, and never with AK.
But if they play slightly broader (QQ, AK) then you can shove. And sometimes you may get a fold from QQ or from an AK.
So, the game being not being a tournament doesn't really matter, you have enough equity in the hand, and enough fold equity, to making shoving or calling a shove, fine.