Personally I think AK especially offsuit is often over played too aggressively. Example you 3x -5x the preflop bet and get a caller who hits a mid range card on the flop. Depending on position and what's left in your stack you are potentially pot committed and can't walk away from a push by that player now even if they have J10 off (like what happened to my AKsuit a few weeks ago) guy hits a 10 goes all in and caught a runner runner flush on the river. On the one hand I played aggressively and correctly (at least in my mind) and called his push properly but even if he hit trips I am hard pressed to fold that hand now. Don't know the answer trying to figure it out myself.
But my undocumented memory
tells me that if I play these
hands without as much aggression I get further in the tourneys. Position for me is (as stated above) really key but you have to know your table. If a freeroll, figure anything goes and its a toss up regardless late in the game same thing. As nobody has skin in the game.
Another example late in a tourney I have 7k in chips and there was another 7k chip player on the table playing aggressively so I figured I would push him out preflop. I had been playing conservatively all game and nobody at this table caught me on a
bluff. I knew he would call almost any mid range bet so I pushed all in preflop. He called with A6 off and hit a 6 on the turn knocking me out. We are going to lose even when we play correctly. But tournament play is all about getting to the money so it becomes a bit of an art to pick and choose when to push against someone that will call with an A trash hand. And being able to recognize those players and trap them becomes the real challenge IMO
