blonde poker forum

I have a question about AK (suited or not). All the books treat AK as a big hand and advise raising preflop with it. I do this as advised, usually raising 4 or 5 times the BB.

However, the maths being what they are, most of the time I miss the flop and I'm looking at absolutely nothing. Shoud I carry on betting big as if I've hit something, and if so do I bet the flop and turn, or just bail out after gettting one call?

 It doesn't feel good betting when you know a pair of twos has you beat!

 Ac Kd

Welcome to Blonde!!

Re your question, I'd ask Ironside....

 rotflmfao rotflmfao ;iagree;

the answer is IT ALL DEPENDS

if your in the deep stages of a tourny i prefer to not raise preflop and dump if missed

wheras when the money is shallow i prefer to get all in with the AK preflop so i can see all 5 cards on the board

during the middle stages you have to play it dependant on the other players on your table

remember its the 3rd best hand in poker but its a slight dog to a pair of 2s just easier to play

???

surely 14th best hand in poker as every pair from AA to 22 ranks above it as a starting hand?

ok, i'd rather be dealt AK than 22 - but 22 still outranks it

22 can beat AK without help but you try playing in a raised pot with 22 or in shallow money with 22 when you have to fold your 22 but AK is still a big hand

22 is coin flipping with most hands and 4-1 dog v any of the other 12 pocket pairs
AK is big dog v AA a 2-1 dog v KK coin flipping with the other 11 pairs a big favourite via any ace or any king and between 60-70% favourite via any 2 other cards

so in money terms AK is the 3rd best hand (on a par with QQ) as it should make you more money than any other hand apart from AA and KK (in the long run)

IMO the main power of AK is in your ability to show aggression pre flop, and I'm always happy to pick up the blinds/any limpers with it uncontested

If you have to see a flop when your raise is called then its horses for courses depending on position/texture of flop and the style of your opponents...do you continuation bet? Usually yes but the answer as with so many things is "it depends"


I disagree with Ironside on a couple of things...i don't move all in in the early stages...why? why risk all your stack early on on a drawing hand?

In the later stages its a great bullying hand..raise the backside out of your opponents with it

tightend thats what i said

Oh glad you know what you meant.....

Sorry if I misunderstood your wordsmithing

I think Iron was taking the piss, given his AK status

by deep i mean deep stacks by shallow money i mean when the stacks are shallow

ffs you would expect the english to be able to understand there own language

what you talking about

i am the AK supremo and when you guys work out how to play it then you will be able to play poker to the same HIGH standard as me

we do understand our language, we just don't understand yours
 8)

Proberly.

 :D  here we go.....

the thing with betting with AK is that quite often you'll get rid of people with lesser starting hands so when the hand comes low chances are you'll have gotten rid of people who would have hit that flop.

AK gains most of it's power later on. I don't think there's anything wrong with playing it fairly passively early in a competition.

You have a 40% chance of hitting the flop with AK, and thats just the ace/king, you can also pickup straight/flush draws which add a few more percent.
Just raise your 3-5bb with it ( more if limpers ), if it hits bet it, if it misses fold - until you're more experienced.

to pair one of your hole cards on the flop is 40%?

I think its nearer 33%, even money through to the river.

its (44/50)*(43/49)*(42/48), subtract that from 1 and you get 0.3242857 or 32.42857% which is the odds of flopping at *least* a pair with AK

its broken down like this ( i copied and pasted this breakdown from a website coz I couldn't be bothered to work it out manually)

flopping  one pair by pairing a hole card 26.939%
flopping  two pair by pairing a hole card AND pairing on the board 2.02%
flopping  two pair by pairing EACH of your hole cards 2.02%
flopping  trips by flopping two cards to one hole card 1.347%
flopping  a full house, trips of one hole card and pairing the other 0.092%
flopping  four of a kind, three cards to one of your hole cards 0.01%

add these up and you get the same 32.428% in the calc above

it doesn't include flopping a straight or a flush.. odds of which are about 0.84% for the flush (if its suited obv) and less then that for the straight.. so bout 33.5% total to improve with AK on the flop

Quick question on AK (suited or not).

Playing cash games i find one of the problems i have is playing AK from the SB or BB in a multi-limped pot. Generally i try to raise to get out the chaff. However, at the limits i play at this generally doesn't work and it turns into a pot sweetner. Thus, i have just build a large pot out of position with an unmade hand.

This is great when an A or K smacks the flop. As noted tho, this happens on 1 in 3 or something like that. Apologies if i'm off with the math.

As it is regarded as 1 of the best starting hands i don't want to lose equity by not raising.

Any tips on playing AK from the blinds in cash games would be appreciated.

Ta, Sorry for the rabble.

Gram

I assume you mean low limit cash games?  I have the same problem and ended up getting beaten by some Jack 6 suited caller or something alike. 

My only advise is to not raise the pot preflop and see what the flop brings if you are losing to limpers.  If it's only a caller or two then I'd stick in a raise but if several have called before me, I'd just follow suit and call.

How big do you normally raise MrSpeed?

Generally depends how many limpers but usually pot sized bet. Have a habit of using the pot button in these situations then rounding off to sensible number.

Not the most thought out strategy, i kn ow but....

Ok, it just happened for real there. 1 limper (i play 6max), i raise to pot = 4x BB. Both the BB and limper call. Lead out with continuation bet on 9 high flop. Get 2 callers and give up and fold on the turn to raise and reraise. I tend to lead out about 30% of the time depending on number of callers and texture of the flop. Showdown sees that limper had A9os and BB had Q9os.

I understand that against players who play with these hands then i shall make money long term but i want to fix this leak.

Gram

There is nothing wrong with building a pot with AK then passing in a cash game, you can always reload!

Just think if it had come A hi in that hand you win a nice pot of mr A9