[W13rd0W]

I win many more hands with AK and A Q than i do with 10 10 and JJ and i think there are more chances with A K vs JJ or something or at least the same chances...

Cheers,
W13rd0W

[nxtyear]

Originally Posted by ReadChomsky

One of the best pieces of advice about A/K came from TJ Cloutier. Don't make a continuation bet on the flop if your A/K doesn't hit. However, if it's checked to you, make a delayed continuation bet on the turn. You'll probably win the hand. Daniel Neagreanu makes this play a lot as well.

i kinda don't get this,, the whole point of a "continuation bet" is to bet out on the flop when u didn't hit (and u were the last raisor pre-flop)

if u don't do continuation bet with AK, what WOULD u do a continuation bet with? :S? think about it, AK is the best hand you can DO a continuation bet with, because it's the best hand that u can be holding when u miss a flop.
i kinda don't get why u shouldn't do continnuation bet.
of course u can occasionally vary your play and if it's checked to you just check it as well and do a continuation bet on the turn,but saying never to do a continuation bet on the flop is abit too much.
flop misses most people, and if there's 2 people in the hand, chances are your opponent would have missed it as well. i reckon betting out on the flop with AK will win you alot of the times, regarding the fact taht your opponent wasn't the last raisor or that he is a loose player.

[W4ll4by]

This is an interesting thread. I think it realy has improved my play when i have AK. Many different ways to use it though. Previously in this thread i read that it was the best starting hand. Thats not true. Ive read tons of poker books and AA is the best then KK then QQ then some think JJ and some think AKs.

[mildseven]

I agree AK is a very good hand but can also be the hand that destroys you in the game if you do not play it correctly once the flop comes. I think the correct thing to do is if you are broke go all in but if you are good in money just play like a good hand, maybe a good raise in the preflop so the lottery players fold (like a 35, 96 whatever). In the net I have gotten a lot of calls with very low hands and me with AK the other guys gets lucky and wins with a pair or whatever.
So you gotta play it smart and keep it pro.

[aparna]

I would say they are good hands, but poker is a 5 card game. No point holding
AA if the flops 5 6 7 and someone had 8 9! Yes you could out bet them, so they fold. But what I hate is someone would call it only cuz the 8 and 9 were suited and hit the damn straight!

[pookyman]

This thread has some horrible information in it. AK is a great starting hand and no matter what your opponent may hold you will not be at a great statistical disadvantage. It is not the best hand. A small pair (head up) has a small advantage over AK, preflop. I like to watch the WSOP and WPT on TV and more players over play AK then any other hand, and are eliminated because of it.

[ScottMc]

It is a drawing hand period. Yes it is a better starting hand then most but, because hole card cams have become the norm and PokerTV only shows you highlights most new players play it like it is Aces. I cant count the number of times just this week alone in Low Limit ring games, NOT TOURNAMENTS, that players have gotten it all in at my table and sometimes against me with AK.

AK suited can be played to a raise or calling a decent bet. If you are looking at a 5x BB raise what do you do with it. 5xBB indicates some extreme strength. You are more than likely up against AA KK QQ. 2 of theses hands have you drawing dead to nothing less than a straight if an A hits or a K hits the flop you are looking at a set and then what do you do? Even hitting 2 pair you are all but dead to most hands that call this preflop with the exception of small pairs 9's and below.

This hand is probably the single biggest bankroll killer after a wife that cant stop shopping. It will drain you if you play weak and break you if you over estimate it. A good example was on FullTiltPoker this week. Phil I. and Pharlad F. were playing $50/ $100 NL with about $35K on the table. PF gets it all in preflop against PI and they turn it up and it is AK v. 88 for all the money. 8's held and PI had $35k in front. The very next hand after PF reloaded to $10k they got it in again and this time it was the exact same hands except PF had 88 and PI had AK and an A spike the turn and he took back to back coin flips. Now these guys are both worth more than all of us combined but it was a good example of the risk you take when you over play the hand.

If you dont play it right you lose it all and if you do play it right at best you are a coin flip away.

[desperad0oo7]

IT is true that JJ TT and even lower pairs are at a slight advantage to AK, However this advantage is arrived at by comparison, and one thing that it ignores is this, there is a higher chance that you will be dealt AK than JJ or TT this means when you are holding AK chances are noone is holding these high pairs and that's where the high value of AK comes from. basically you are twice more likely to be dealt AK than TT JJ or even AA.

The problem with AK is that it only pays of when it dominates weaker Ks or As
such as AQ or KQ. now chances are that someone is holding a weaker A around(63%) there will be someone with a weaker ace. as good as this might seem it is in fact problematic, because if chances are people hold weaker A's and K's your chance to hit the flop is diminished. however, what might usually happen is that they hit their weaker pair and beat you bad. This is usually y this card does not hit well on the flop.

It is known that KK QQ not JJ or TT are better than AK however AKs is better than QQ but not KK.

I would suggest to bet hard preflop to get all the A, K rags out and fold if u don't hit on the flop, unless you have a small stack and the blinds are high then go all in, who knows you might steal the pot, afterall you bet hard preflop.

[AGreen]

This email is a great read. It's from Full Tilt, Tips from the Pros. Rafe Furst wrote this one.



I often tell people that short-term results are not a reason to change how they play, but I likewise encourage them to use any excuse to study and analyze their game.

Recently, a player on Full Tilt Poker lamented that he'd gone broke with A-K in his last several tourneys, and he suspected that he was doing something wrong. A few questions revealed that he was getting knocked out fairly early in these tournaments when he put his A-K up against pocket pairs for all his chips. It's a familiar lament.

Many people fall in love with A-K pre-flop in No-Limit Hold 'em because they know that they can rarely be much worse than 50-50 to win the hand if they get all of their money in heads up. While this is true, the reverse is also true: Rarely will you be much better than 50-50 to win an all-in showdown.

So why is A-K considered such a great starting hand? Folding equity. Under the right conditions, you can increase your pot equity to well over 50% by getting your opponents to fold in situations where they shouldn't. Here's a scenario: Blinds are $200-$400 and Jen Harman (who has $12,000 in front of her) raises to $1,200 from middle position with pocket tens. You re-raise all-in for $6,000 with A-K from the button. It is difficult for Jen to call here because, even though she suspects you might have A-K, she knows you could also make that play with A-A, K-K, Q-Q or
J-J.

Does she want to play for half of her stack on what figures to be, at best, a 57% favorite? You, on the other hand, are confident that unless she has one of two hands (AA or KK), you are no worse than 43% to win, even if she calls. Unless Jen picks up on a tell, she is forced to fold a hand that is actually better than your A-K by a slight margin. Not only that, but you've also made her give up all the extra chips in the pot (mostly hers) that were giving her great odds to make a call. Variants of this scenario come up all the time in No-Limit Hold 'em.

The mistake many inexperienced players make is not giving their opponents a chance to fold. They look down to find A-K and can't wait to get all their money in the middle and race. But as we can see from the example above, the power of A-K pre-flop really comes from the "folding equity" you gain when you can make your opponent lay down a hand they would not lay down if they could see your hole cards.




Here are three keys to getting the most out of A-K pre-flop:

1) Jam with A-K, but don't call all-in with it.

2) Raise enough when you have A-K to give your opponents a chance to fold.

3) Don't raise so much that the only hands that are willing to call you are the hands that have you dominated (A-A and K-K).

To execute these plays properly, it is important to keep in mind the size of the blinds relative to your opponents' stacks and your own stack. A-K loses much of its value when your opponents are short-stacked or pot committed -- and therefore unlikely to lay down a hand -- or when the blinds are very small relative to everyone's stacks. These principles apply to both ring game and tournament play.

Getting back to my friend who kept busting early in tourneys with A-K...

In the early stages of a tournament, the blinds are very small relative to everyone's stack size. This contributed to his breaking of each of the three rules:

(1) He was calling his opponents' all-in raises when they had their expected pocket pairs.

(2) He was jamming only after his opponents were pot-committed.

(3) After getting gun shy from having his A-K cracked a few times, he made his raises way too big to "protect" his hand, but then was only getting called once he was beat.

This is one of those instances where looking at short-term results can lead to long-term improvements.

-Rafe Furst