Ok, what should you do in a tourny with the blinds still extremely low in a tourny with AK

In a cash game?

its not really that easy of a question to answer...just like most questions in poker, its situational...theyre a lot of factors involved

Speak of the factors and situations... or even past situations where ace king payed off or failed you.

in 3 words "bring the dick" lol. dude need a hand history or this is just too vague! If you don't know what to do with hands then read dan harringtons books and david sklansky's book, play some fake chip games, then start reading hands posted in forums and start learning

thanks man, but u should be determined to get all ur chips in just cuz u hav AK... right?

like i said, its situational...like the previous poster said, pick up some books, and search the forums here for hand discussions on AK..

Besides being extremely situational it also depends on what kind of player you are. I know we all want to view ourselves as good poker players but we have to be honest with ourselves and figure out what kind a poker player we are. The reason I say this is a top pro is never looking to get his money all in pre flop with AK because of the fact that you run into AA KK way too often and if not that your in a coin flip for all your money even agains deuces! The pro feels that he has more than a 50/50 edge on his opponents and can find better spots to get it all in before the flop. On the other hand, an ameteur is for sure going to get all his money in the pot preflop with AK because he edge is non existent or minimal against his opponent and is trying to get all his money in as hopefully a small favorite to win. Bottom line is there is usually no shame in getting it all in pre flop with AK it really depends on the situation and how you view yourself at the table.

Hope this helps...

fold, you don't even have a pair.

Agreed. Drawings for donks.

WIN ldo.


Or this.

Is this what you mean by fresh haircut?

I don't think a bad player would consider his chance of winning over a better player as a factor or simply a reason to move in with AK. I think he's simply gonna move in because he got a hard on from looking at AK. Hence why he's a bad player.

PS: If we somehow learn that the OP is a fake, i called it.

This is a very flawed view.

I don't entirely agree with this but see I see your point. As the guys say it is very situational. At 10/20 level with 1,500 chips I hate picking up AK, it can land you in serious trouble, therefore OP's point of being early in an MTT picking up AK and thinking it is a get your money in pot situation is wide off the mark. On the other hand at a level such as 100/200 with 1,500 your AK suddenly becomes a huge huge hand. You notice how on one hand its a 'proceed with caution' hand and the next its a monster, it all depends depends depends.

Lets have another go.

You have AK on the button, blinds are 100/200 and you have a nice stack of 20,000. UTG shoves all in for 5,000 and its folded to you. What do you do? Easy answer, right? INSTA CALL all day long.

Now you have AK in the BB blinds are still 100/200 and you've moved your stack onto 26,000 after shipping the last pot. Table chip leader with 30k in the SB shoves onto your BB, do you get the same answer? As a clue even if he has 7-2 offsuit he'll send you packing 40% of the time.

Thats what the guys mean when they say situational.

lol i meant shouldnt..

1. Ak is a monster at 10/20 with 1500 chips. You hate getting it? Horrible thinking imo. What you mean is you hate folding it post flop so you lose chips all the time because you get married to it.

2. YES YOU GET THE SAME ANSWER. Here's a clue getting your money in good is a good thing. Are you saying fold because he could have a worse hand and you get knocked out? Horrible thinking imo.

Be rolled for the games you play and stop whinging about suckouts.

Can't win any chips if you don't risk your own.

Horrible thinking. Still a profitable player. At the end of the day all I was trying to do was put the point across that AK in different situations merit different thoughts. Yes the examples are poor I have to admit that after reviewing them again. Thanks for your thoughts but next time be a little less aggressive and put your point out there. After all we all have our opinions.

Fix up these leaks and be a more profitable player?

There are many factors in playing AK but I think it really depends on your style of play.

There are some players here who are very aggressive with AK and like to play it fast. Especially at the lower levels you’re going to get called by a weaker ace a lot of the time.

There’s another group that likes to play it a little softer flat call and playing post flop. Neither way is wrong per se it depends on how you want to play it.

I generally like to play AK fast when out of position and slow when in position but as someone stated earlier – it depends on the situation.

If you’re playing an aggressive player and you have AK you might want to let him bet when you hit your hand then check raise or check call him if you think you have the best hand.



Instead of asking us to post our AK hands, why not go through your hand history and post some of your own. That way you'll have more context when discussing them.

I like to play AK like a medium hand when the blinds are low, generally speaking.

Raise.

If I miss I fold.

If I hit I bet and feel it out from there.

Don't get married to AK, be able to fold it it's just a high connector pre-flop.

I like to put all my chips in the middle with AK, a lot.

well put

Personally i put a lot more stock into AK in a tourney and will play it more aggressively in any tournament setting. (obvious?)

In a cash game, I'm raising/calling in any position pre-flop, w/ A-Ko i have to get rid of limpers because if i get outdrawn by a weak hand it kills me.

I find my self raising pre, whiffing, then cont. betting about 75% of the time in cash games, and it's profitable the majority of the time. The rest of the time i'll just fold it post flop, i never really get married to A-Ko because its not as strong as it seems (basically a coinflip w/ 2-2)

You do realize it is one of the best starting hands? Even though it's a coinflip against most PP it kills every other hand including an ace. Unless they got 2 of 'em. Which can happen from time to time.

And you like getting your money in the pot in a touney but not in a cash game? That doesn't make sense, cause cash games should be played more aggresively and tourneys more safe. I say it's the opposite, where I do put my money on AKo -> the cash tables.

You mind explain your reasoning for rather shoving AK in a cash game than in a tourney..?

I take it we are taking regular tournies, and not the few deepstacked ones.
In a normal tourny you have to multiply your stack many times before facing the chance of winning anything.
If you loose on the other hand, you only loose your buy-in and not your whole stack. This fact alone speaks
for taking larger risks in tournies than you do in cash games.

I mean.. in most "regular" tournies you will often find people at stacks as low as 10 big blinds, wich
makes their ranges way wider than in any regular cash game. Decent players playing cash games will allways
keep their stack deep enough to get value of their big hands, thus making their shoving range preflop very samll.
I sincerely cannot find any logical reasoning behind your statement about shoving AK in cash games, mr Kreppsen.

It all depends a lot on the situation of course but I'll try to explain why I think shoving is better in cash games with AK than in tourneys.

In cash games, the majority of people will play more aggresively to accumulate $. Getting AIPF with AK is ideal in cash games cause the majority of the time people will show weaker aces or PP, and since we're almost coinflipping to 99- and still have a decent 40-60 against anything up to QQ-1010. In the long run this will be profitable (TN, feel free to put some statistics in stove and show us the exact numbers)

If we lose, my next load of money is two clicks away.
If I win, off we go to another table.

Let's say we've been running a tourney for 90 minutes, blinds increase but we still got an M of 25. I don't like putting my tournament life at risk with AK PF, I would rather prefer to play it a little more safe. Of course bet PF hard but go to the flop, re-evaluate and then, let's say we hit our ace, we may shove. Situation, situation, situation!
You say we gotta double our stack a lot of times? You're right, but no one said we had to double up to only AIPF. Outplay opponents on flop/turn/river and when we know we have them crushed we will put all our money in good.

If we lose, our tourney is over, 90 minutes is wasted, my buy-in's gone and I can't take my share of the prizepool. All we lost was our buy-in?
If we win, we have ourselves a huge stack but that still doesn't guarantee us a price like it would in a cash game.
Also, when playing tourneys the top price is way bigger than any of our cash game wins, so giving up this chance for one hand would be ridicolous. I'd rather play a lot of hands solid than throw it all away in one hand.

Really, this all depends on the situation, sometimes you might even want to fold AK. I don't really know what there is left to say. The hardest thing isn't to answer but to ask the right questions, and for me this question is way too general to give a proper response.

I'm gonna start a company, what do I do?

every word of this is backwards

people are way more willing to be all in preflop with worse than AK in a tournament, not in a cash game

also, constantly being on the bad end of a coinflip is not profitable, unless there is constantly lots of dead money in the pot (which btw there is more likely to be in a tournament than in a cash game)

Yes, I can see this, but like I said it depends and you gotta include all factors and this question is just way off.

From time to time I have no problem shoving AKo and sometimes I just fold them. This goes for both cash and tourneys. I got no problem playing neither of them but I like to play my tournaments a little more safe, but like I said if the best play to me is a shove then it's no problem. But, I'm not as comfortable doing this in a tourney as I would be in a cash game.
I don't think I'll discuss this anymore because we can't really give him good answers on what to do with AK.

EDIT: The long version of this got deleted, pc shut me down.