AK suited or unsuited is a very strong hand preflop and you should be raising/3betting preflop with this hand as often as you can. Like most big hands, you want to limit the number of players that see a flop against you, so raising to isolate is what you're looking for. Against almost all players, playing AK aggressively is much better than playing it passively.
Hitting and missing flops with AK:
AK is going to pair on the flop about 1/3 of the time, always giving you TP/TK which is often times the best hand at show down. Even if an A or K hits on a dry board, you should still c-bet as the aggressor because your opponents will call you with much worse on really standard c-bet looking flops. For example 88 might call a c-bet on an A 2 7 flop.
AK is going to miss the flop 2/3 of the time, but they still have equity to win the hand. In the J 3 7 flop example, even though AK missed, being the aggressor and c-betting can easily pick up the pot. And if the opponent calls, you have a ~12% chance to hit the turn. ~24% chance if you can see a turn a river if you shove and get called, for example.
So, c-betting most flops with AK is going to earn you the pot more often than not even if you do miss it, but you have to keep in mind your opponents raising and 3bet calling range. The tighter the range, the less equity you have against them when c-bet on missed flops. The wider the range, the more equity you have.
AK vs other hands:
I think a common misunderstanding a lot of newer players have are the preflop odds to win with AK vs other hands.
In the thread, a member mentioned that 67 is 40% to win against AK's 60%. And yes, this is true but it only applies if you are guaranteed to see all 5 cards. Otherwise, AK has much more equity over 67 on most flops when both miss and even when 67 hits a single pair after calling a preflop and is facing c-bet aggression. Even on flop of 6-Q-2, it could be hard to call a c-bet with MP/WK since the turn can bring a lot of over cards that can shut it down, especially if AK fires a 2nd barrel.
The same goes for 22 vs AK. Yes, this is a classic race situation, but again, that only applies if all 5 cards are seen. AK as a lot of equity against 22 because 88% of the time over cards are going to flop. So, even if AK misses, it's very hard for 22 to continue on a 5-8-10 flop facing a c-bet.
A member said that 22 and QQ against AK is practically the same thing and this is not true at all. Yes, AK vs QQ is 50/50 preflop if all cards to be seen. However, AK doesn't have as much equity on a missed flop against QQ as it does 22. Going back to the OP, a 3-J-7 flop is going to be very hard for 22 to continue against a c-bet, but it's very easy for QQ to continue. Again, the tighter the raise/3bet calling range your opponent has, the less equity you have on missed flops.
Shoving vs calling shoves with AK
Aggression is the key when playing AK because you can either win it by having the best hand or by getting your opponent to fold. So, you would rather be one to be betting/shoving than being the one calling shoves on missed flops.
AK, on a missed flop, has ~24% chance of hitting on the turn or river when facing a shove. So, you'll need to be getting over 3.15:1
pot odds to make this call a profitable one. However, if we flip and we're the one's shoving with AK on a missed flop, say 7-J-3, we still have equity to hit when called, but make it hard for some hands to call with, like 55, so we gain when they fold. Being the aggressor gives us 2 ways to win vs only 1.
Whether you should standard c-bet missed flop or shove it with AK depends on effect stack sizes. If stacks are deep, then you're better off making a standard c-bet. You'll either win the pot uncontested and if your opponent calls, you can re-evaluate on the turn. However, with deep stacks, you don't want to shove on a missed flops because your opponent is still folding if they miss, but they're only calling your shove with hands that have you beat. Even with your ~24% to hit on turn or river, you're not getting the right pot odds to make this type of play profitable.
In the AK vs 100BB all-in early in a tournament, here is a response I made in a different thread:
-Just because they're aggressive doesn't mean you need to risk your tournament life early on, but it would ultimately be up to you. It's still early in tournament and lets say you have a 100BB stack, you're not giving up a lot by raising 9BBs and folding to a shove. If UTG has any pair under AK, you're in a 50/50 situation and if they have any non-paired hand without A or K, like 10J or QJ, you're roughly a 60% favorite to win. So, to make a profitable call, the pot should be laying to to 2:1 or 1.6:1 respectively.
Lets say effect stacks are 1000 with 5/10 blinds.
-UTG raises to 30
-You 3bet to 90
-UTG shoves all in.
-Pot is now 90 + 30 + 15 + 970 = 1105
-It's costing you 910 to win a pot of 1105, only giving you 1.2:1 odds. This is much less than the odds of your hand holding up, so it should be a fold. However, like I said, it's up to you if you think you should risk a possible 50/50 or 60/40 situation this early on in a tournament.
Best case scenario is if they have a hand like KQ, AQ, AJ where you're dominating and are an 80% favorite to win and the pot is just barely giving your the right odds to call (slightly under) but you can only really make that call if that's what you think they have. Again, it's risking 100BBs, so even in that situation, I still think a fold is the right play. Worst case is if they have AA or KK.
So, as played, I think it's an easy fold preflop this early in the tournament. You aren't getting the odds to call in what's most likely a 50/50 or 60/40 situation. I think the 3 bet preflop was fine with AK, though. You were just put into a tough situation early on.-
I would like to add that in re-buy tournaments, I might call an all in preflop with AK just because I can either win a huge pot or I can re-buy in the MTT if I bust. In standard tournaments, I learn more towards a fold.
So, when should you be shoving with AK? Preflop, it's pretty standard you should be shoving with AK when you're short stacked. You should 3bet shove if you have a stack where a standard 3bet is committing you to the pot since you wont have any fold equity on the flop if you shove. You also commit yourself if your opponent 4 bets and folding after putting in 50% of your stack preflop/on the flop is just bad. At least 3bet shoving preflop you have fold equity preflop and some if called. On the flop, you should be shoving if your stack is about equal to the pot or less, or if a standard c-bet commits you to the pot of you're raised/called.
Sorry if this post was really long.
