 Ace
King – How To Play The Misplayed Monster
Tell me if this sounds familiar; “I
can’t win with AK”, “I
had big slick, I can’t believe you
beat me with that!”, etc., etc. etc.
AK is a very strong hand, however it can
and does get beginners in trouble. If I
were to hazard a guess, I’d say that
AK is the most misplayed hand in
No-Limit Poker.
*We've got more strategy articles and poker
strategy videos available at KickAssPoker.com!
The Strength of AK
AK is a monster hand. According to
Poker Room’s Expected Value (EV) calculator
AK suited is the 5th strongest hand (behind
AA, KK, QQ & JJ), and AK off-suit is
the 7th strongest (behind TT).
There is absolutely no doubt that AK is
a positive EV hand. That’s pretty
much in line with what all the Poker books
teach as well.
The strength of this hand is that when it
hits, more often than not, you’re
going to have the best hand. Of course there
will be the suck outs even when it does
hit, but that’s the nature of the
game. Most of the time when you pair you’re
Ace or King, you’ll go on to win the
hand. The other thing that makes this hand
strong is that when it doesn’t hit,
it’s easy to get away from, or should
be. I’ll touch on this more in a minute.
The Weakness of AK
AK is very pretty to look at, but it is
still a drawing hand. If you don’t
hit an Ace or King, you’ve just got
Ace high. Unfortunately many new (and not
so new) players get sucked in by its beauty
and just can’t seem to let it go,
even when it doesn’t hit. How many
times have you seen a player online call
to the river and turn over and AK that didn’t
hit?
Another weakness is that you’re mostly
playing for top pair top kicker (TPTK).
You can only make one straight and most
of the time your flush draw won’t
hit. Because of this, it’s not a hand
that plays well against multiple players.
Pre-Flop
We’ve established the obvious, that
AK is a big hand. We’ve also established
that it’s lack of draws make it weaker
against multiple players (but still strong
enough to play). So this tells us that we
need to raise with AK.
Until the game is heads up at the final
table, see very few situations where limping
with AK is justified. I understand the whole
“mix up your game” theory, but
save it for another hand. AK NEEDS to
be raised or re-raised pre-flop.
With AK you will miss the flop 66% of the
time (against 3 limpers), but on those hands
where you hit, you want to be isolated as
much as possible and you want the pot as
big as possible. Let’s do the math.
I’m assuming equal bets to keep the
math simple. If you limp with AK vs. three
limpers you will win 4 Bets 33% of the time
(ignoring post-flop). It costs you one bet
each time, for a net 1 bet per 3 hands or
0.33 bets per hand.
By raising, 33% of the time you win 8 bets,
costing you 2 bets each for a net of +2
bets per 3 hands or 0.66sb per hand. So,
by not raising in this situation your EV
per hand goes down by 0.33 bets.
This is obviously very simplistic and it
doesn’t take into account the additional
EV you get by folding your opponents, but
it still illustrates the point. This is
not a hand to limp with.
How to Play AK When It Hits
This is the easy part. BET IT! How much
you bet is dependent on the texture of the
flop of course. If there are draws that
can hurt you, bet more. If there aren’t
any obvious draws, bet what you need to
and maximize your winnings. Easy, right?
How to Play AK When it Misses
I spent some time on pre-flop play, but
frankly most of the problems players have
with AK are not related to pre-flop play.
They have a problem because when they miss
the flop, they play it like they have a
real hand instead of just Ace high. This
is where players get into trouble.
So how should you play your AK if it misses?
Well, it depends. (That’s the answer
for most poker questions, isn’t it?)
It depends on your position, number and
type of opponents, and the exact texture
of the flop, among other things. This is
a fairly complex topic and there are no
exact approaches, but there are some general
rules that will save you some chips.
 Please
commit this to memory: Just
because you raised pre-flop does not mean
you are obligated to bet the flop.
A continuation bet (a flop bet following
a pre-flop raise) is very powerful and should
be used, but the situation has to be right.
One thing to keep in mind is that you do
not want to bet into a large field from
early position.
With several players to act after you, generally
the best approach is to check and either
fold to a big bet or call a small bet if
you have the odds to draw to your over cards
and the texture of the flop is favorable.
Mostly you’ll want to fold.
There are situations where you’ll
want to bet. You want to bet your unimproved
AK on the flop if any 2 of these conditions
exist (#1 being the most important)
.1. You are up against 2 or less opponents
(that are not calling stations!).
2. You are in late position and it is checked
to you
3. The board is rainbow and uncoordinated
4. You have additional draws to go with
your over cards
I’m sure there are other times when
it would be smart to bet, but these are
the general rules I follow (try to follow).
Don't get married to over cards. If they
don’t hit on the flop, chances are,
even if you hit, you’re going to be
second best. Trying to push through several
opponents with only over cards is a good
way to lose a lot of chips. Remember, AK
is profitable, in part, because it is easy
to fold.
-jtd
* Thanks to justthedude for the article
and oh yeah, bassmaster helped with some
of the strategy ideas ; - ). I found another
pretty good article at Card Player about
Playing
Big Slick. You can read the rest of
jtd's (and other) poker
strategy articles here.
Try jtd's strategy out right now online.
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