[jiggy694u]

if the player was smart and knew you would reraise him, ask you self this question.... why not limp...he gets more play in case you had nothing and you were just trying to steal... i see that as a smart play that worked, but only works when the person is aggressive. i would try selected aggression next time and have a bit better luck

[rumborak]

AK did not work for me so offen too!!! i'll be very carefull whit this cards in the future! believe me!!!

[Thinkerbell]

This is an interesting question, because both ways of playing this hand have their pros and cons.

If you raise with it, then people are on notice that you may very well have a good hand. If A or K comes on the flop, and you bet, they will most likely believe you have the winning hand and will fold.
I've run into situations where I limped in, then hit A or K, and when I bet, people stayed in because they had some middle pair or were chasing something. They didn't think I had anything significantly better than they did. And I couldn't get them to fold in a timely manner. And next thing that happens is they make trips, or they catch their straight or flush and I lose.
The main advantage of limping as far as I can see is if you hit it big on the flop (AA, AK, KK) and figure nobody is going to beat you, you can trap them because they don't know that you probably have the winning hand. But that's a big "if".
Another advantage of limping is that if the flop does you no good, you can fold and you've lost the minimum amount of chips. There's nothing like raising pre-flop, and having the flop comes 8, 3, 7. Ooops.

[Exgawd]

Although it can be frustrating to give up chips to a horrible hand that calls a raise when I am hold AK....and sometimes limping can yield some nice rewards when an unsuspecting opponent is trapped....my experience, over the long haul, has been to get my money in when I am ahead, more times than not callers of my raising with AK are punished post flop when they do not hit, whether I do or not....somedays it does feel though like everytime I put money in with a strong starting hand, the weak starters steal my money hehe....for the most part, I think respecting my opponents intelligence is best, so, mixing it up to try and keep them off a solid read of my play is the best bet....

[iceberg]

One of the problems of NOT raising with AK is that you are letting in a lot of small pairs, who can hit a set on the flop or later depending on the betting. It's always a good idea to raise 3-4BB and give yourself a little protection.

The second problem is you pair up and also a pair hits the board (AXX or KXX). Once again you are faced with the problem of facing a set. I also like to mix it up, but in general will make a raise pre-flop.

[Thinkerbell]

I should make a spreadsheet of all our BBP players and what moves they make depending on what hands they have. Then I could refer to it while we're playing, and could have a pretty good idea of what these players are holding. Too bad I'm so lazy. Although, if I constructed this spreadsheet, I could probably sell it to forum members. Hmmmmm.....would make more money doing that than playing poker, I'm sure!

[Lytspeed]

Originally Posted by Thinkerbell

I should make a spreadsheet of all our BBP players and what moves they make depending on what hands they have.

That's not a bad idea (the spreadsheet, not necessarily the sale of it.) I'm sure a lot of professional players use spreadsheets or tracking software to give them an edge on the tables.

[peteb0065]

well i think that A-K should be banned(only joking) it seems to be a nightmare hand 4 me so many times have i gone all in with it and lost trust me i have now learned my lesson from that, but also when i even try slow play some one will nearly always pick up 2 pr or something.
good luck with the A-K people

[lefou]

I hate AK, I have a lot of problems with this hand . I never know how to play it. But I've found the solution , I don't raise it and I check the flop and if I don't like the flop I fold it. And if some raise pré-flop I fold it .

[MuckingAcehole]

Originally Posted by sunnypoker

i won't mention names, tbh i can't remember who it was anyways

anyways, i picked up an interesting play in the last freeroll from the player who was on my left (ie act one before me).

he NEVER seemed to raise preflop with AK.
now i don't know if cards just fell good his way or what but it seemed to have worked quite well in the freeroll
i saw numerous occasions of him havingg AK (a LOT of times in fact from what i remmeber)

i got introuble from it because he just limps with it all the time, disguising the strength, and consequently, me being the aggressive one (that i try to be), i always tried to punish him by raising when he limps, and i was the one who get punished because i didn't put him on AK (or in fact, AK AGAIN soon after when the same thing happened)

i honestly think it's a bad long-run strategy to never raise the AK but i may be wrong. whoever it was that did so, would you please give us tips as to why your strategy is so? because it worked well in the freeroll yesterday.

when the blinds are small in a tourney i will limp AK if it hits i play if it misses i didnt lose much. in a cash game i feel its a good idea to raise. late in a tourney when the blinds are big i feel you NEED to raise it.