AK - a good hand?

peter27

AK is supposed to be one of the stongest starting hands in poker - is it okay to go all-in pre-flop with it though? That is assuming that you have a healthy chip stack.

I ask because I've done this many times over the last month (with a range of different stack sizes) and the majority of the time I am called by someone with pockets and I completely miss the ace or king, losing the hand.

VespaPX

Hi Peter

First of all remember it is only Ace high preflop even though it is a monster hand.
Why would you go all in with a healthy stack and put your tournament on the line?
Great hand for shoving with 15 BB or less.

With a decent stack just raise like you would with any other decent starting hand and reassess on the flop.

Of course with a big stack you could use it preflop to bully the smaller stacks.

Just my opinion... see what others advise.

Cheers

Talon

In Response to AK - a good hand?:

AK is supposed to be one of the stongest starting hands in poker - is it okay to go all-in pre-flop with it though? That is assuming that you have a healthy chip stack. I ask because I've done this many times over the last month (with a range of different stack sizes) and the majority of the time I am called by someone with pockets and I completely miss the ace or king, losing the hand.
Posted by peter27

 Simple answer is yes it is a good hand but it has limitations and these you should be aware of. Most of the time you will be flipping or ahead but not by an overly large amount. Some simple stats for you.

 AK vs underpair   48/52
 AK vs Ax or Kx    70/30
 AK vs KK       30/70
 AK vs AA      8/92
 AK vs suited connectors   58/42
 AK vs connectors  62/38
 AK vs  2 undercards(eg 72o)  67/33

K8LOU

Of course this is a good hand, the reason ak is so strong is the fact of you pretty much always have decent equity, except in case when you run it into aa or kk your either flipping or crushing.

FCHD

But if you're only geting called in the majority of cases by a hand that you're at best 50-50 with, why get a big stack in early?

F_Ivanovic

In Response to AK - a good hand?:

AK is supposed to be one of the stongest starting hands in poker - is it okay to go all-in pre-flop with it though? That is assuming that you have a healthy chip stack. I ask because I've done this many times over the last month (with a range of different stack sizes) and the majority of the time I am called by someone with pockets and I completely miss the ace or king, losing the hand.
Posted by peter27

How healthy a chip stack - i assume we're talking tournament play? It's true that a lot of the times when we get it in AK we will be up against a pocket pair. The reason why AK is so strong is that with the exception of being up against KK or AA (unlikely when we hold an A or K) we are always in a race situation at worst. We can also get it in as a big favourite vs hands like KQ/KJ and all Ax hands worse than AK. And against 2 live cards we have at least 62%ish.

Also with AK we can "bluff" smaller pairs out of the hand pre-flop. As an example, someone in the CO with 18bbs raises 2.5bbs with pocket 4s and we 3bet to 5bbs on the BTN. (Or alternatively just go all in) - we have the same stack as CO. Even though 44 would go with it if he could see our hand, he has to be playing against our whole range of hands. And whilst we have AK/AQ quite often we will also have big pairs like TT+. So the 44 knows it is either flipping or completely crushed, and will have to fold.

hhyftrftdr

AK- an absolute beast of a hand towards the latter stages of a tournament, but one I'm happy to bin in the early stages should the betting get too heavy.

bert21

like the hand in live play but on sky poker seems terrible to me

somecards1

a good hand 2 push all in???

peter27

In Response to Re: AK - a good hand?:

Hi Peter First of all remember it is only Ace high preflop even though it is a monster hand. Why would you go all in with a healthy stack and put your tournament on the line? Great hand for shoving with 15 BB or less. With a decent stack just raise like you would with any other decent starting hand and reassess on the flop. Of course with a big stack you could use it preflop to bully the smaller stacks. Just my opinion... see what others advise. Cheers
Posted by VespaPX

This was very simple to understand and very helpful - thanks!

In Response to Re: AK - a good hand?:

In Response to AK - a good hand? :  Simple answer is yes it is a good hand but it has limitations and these you should be aware of. Most of the time you will be flipping or ahead but not by an overly large amount. Some simple stats for you.  AK vs underpair   48/52  AK vs Ax or Kx    70/30  AK vs KK       30/70  AK vs AA      8/92  AK vs suited connectors   58/42  AK vs connectors  62/38  AK vs  2 undercards(eg 72o)  67/33
Posted by Talon

I don't quite understand this - you're saying AK will win vs an underpair 48 times out of 52? Surely that can't be right?

In Response to Re: AK - a good hand?:

In Response to AK - a good hand? : How healthy a chip stack - i assume we're talking tournament play? It's true that a lot of the times when we get it in AK we will be up against a pocket pair. The reason why AK is so strong is that with the exception of being up against KK or AA (unlikely when we hold an A or K) we are always in a race situation at worst. We can also get it in as a big favourite vs hands like KQ/KJ and all Ax hands worse than AK. And against 2 live cards we have at least 62%ish. Also with AK we can "bluff" smaller pairs out of the hand pre-flop. As an example, someone in the CO with 18bbs raises 2.5bbs with pocket 4s and we 3bet to 5bbs on the BTN. (Or alternatively just go all in) - we have the same stack as CO. Even though 44 would go with it if he could see our hand, he has to be playing against our whole range of hands. And whilst we have AK/AQ quite often we will also have big pairs like TT+. So the 44 knows it is either flipping or completely crushed, and will have to fold.
Posted by F_Ivanovic

Interesting, excuse my noobish question - but what does CO mean?

MAXALLY

48/52...is the %

CO = Cut off

BorinLoner

I imagine the next question a new player might ask is "Right. So what does 'Cut off' mean?" The answer is that the cut off is the seat to the right of the dealer button.

So the seating positions at a six handed table, moving clockwise from the small blind are:

The Small Blind
The Big Blind
Under The Gun
The Hijack (UTG+1)
The Cut Off
The Button

The closer to the button you are, the happier you are.

TeddyBloat

Poker hands can be hard to rate, innit

Consider this:

A is beaten by B

C beats B

Therefore C beats A

Seems logical,  yah? Pokers not so simple...

AK is beaten by 22

JTs beats 22

But JTs does not beat AK

Go figure...

Cheers, 

TEDDY

weedgi

JTs beats 22     !!!!

might ducks never lose  

bbMike

In Response to Re: AK - a good hand?:

But if you're only geting called in the majority of cases by a hand that you're at best 50-50 with, why get a big stack in early?
Posted by FCHD

This is very important to understand. You need to understand how your opponent will be thinking. If you have 15BB and ship over a raise you'll get called much lighter and therefore be in better shape on average. If you have 200BB and 3-bet your opponent and they 4-bet, you need to work out what hands are left that they'd continue with if you shove (assuming the shove is big enough to fold to). You can take that list of hands that Talon posted with odds, eliminate a fair few of those, and if you're only left with QQ KK AA or AK then AK isn't going to stand up the vast majority of the time. The beauty is that there are no rules to say you can only 4-bet with QQ+!

One of the worst things we can do in poker is look at two hole cards and continue simply thinking we're destined to win the world.

Best of luck.

bbMike

Just to add, taking a flip early for a large stack in something like a BH can be very profitable if 1/2 times you get a stack you can throw about and pick up extra value from bounties. But you must know your opponent. In lower stakes BHs (the only level I can advise on!) people in general will call lighter if a bounty is on offer and they have at least a good few BBs behind.

peter27

In Response to Re: AK - a good hand?:

48/52...is the % CO = Cut off
Posted by MAXALLY

Ahhh, thanks!

In Response to Re: AK - a good hand?:

I imagine the next question a new player might ask is "Right. So what does 'Cut off' mean?" The answer is that the cut off is the seat to the right of the dealer button. So the seating positions at a six handed table, moving clockwise from the small blind are: The Small Blind The Big Blind Under The Gun The Hijack (UTG+1) The Cut Off The Button The closer to the button you are, the happier you are.
Posted by BorinLoner

That's interesting - I'd read simmilar things before, but not heard these terms. In fact, I thought UTG meant pre-flop!!

Previously I was considering the positions to be:

Small Blind
Big Blind
Rubbish
Rubbish
Decent Position
Button

haha!

Thanks for this post, very helpful! :-)

thejudge10

 


     monster of a hand late on , ace high early on


    either way I love havin it

The_Don90

In answer to the OP 

I think getting AK in pre in most situations is correct. 

There are exceptions to this, based on our opponents range in the spot, stack size etc etc. 

I think also if you play a small volume (maybe like 1-2 mtts per night) you culd argue for a fold so you get more out of your games. I would understand this even though i personally disagree with it.