AK first hand - strategy?

[UMTerp]

What's your general strategy here? I have no qualms about getting my stack in preflop with this hand, even up to the $50 level. The only exception is if I'm against a player that I know is a good SNG player, and he gets his stack in first (and then I'll still usually call if I had ~25% or more of my stack in there already).

I'll always reraise a raiser, I don't like flat-calling here. AK is obvioiusly a hand that wants to see 5 cards, and it's amazing some of the junk people will throw their chips in with early. AK is often a dominating hand in the early stages when the crazies are still in.

If it's raised and reraised before me, I'll generally still throw them all in there, again, with some exceptions that are opponent-dependent.

Is this bad? I don't really have stats on it, but intuitively, it seems to be working OK. I'd say about half of my 9th places finishes are because I've lost races early with AK, but it seems like I'm up against morons with AQ, AJ, or worse often enough to make this profitable.

Thoughts?

[slickterp]

i'd say it's not a bad strategy. i am wary to push in the first round, but if id di it would be w/ AA, KK, or AK. i'd say that a push vs. a reraiser would give you heads up most of the time and probably result in a coin flip, but often you will dominate AQ and AJ (even seen AT in this situation). i pushed early yesterday with AKs and was called by A6o. of course he won when the board ended up 5789x, but that's a different story for a different day /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[e_fermat]

Knowing that it is a coin-flip against a pocket pair other than AA or KK (QQ-77 generally, which you are ok with) you just need to determine whether the ratio of times you are called by hands you dominate (AQ, KQ, etc) sufficiently exceeds the times you are in fact facing AA/KK.

Based on observation only (I play the same Stars turbos you do), I'd say it gets pretty close at the $55+5 level but is still a +$EV play. At $25+2 or lower, it's a no brainer.

Fermat

[UMTerp]

You also have to take into acount that there is often dead money in the pot, and you have some folding equity when you push.

I remember one particular hand from yesterday, I'm in the BB sometime in the first level with KK. $25 Turbo SNG. Open-raiser to like T120 or something pretty high, 3 callers, I push when it gets to me. I got one caller with a medium pocket pair, don't even remember if I won the hand or not, but I'm generally fine with that situation. And a lot of times every one will fold and you'll have 1800-1900 chips right off the bat.

I've only played 40 or so $50's, so I don't know how applicable that strategy is to that level (probably less so). Also, I'm dealing almost exclusively with Turbo's (5 minute blind levels), so that makes the play a little more correct in general too I would think.

[Poker_God]

I would say that basic strat for me with AK is not to flat call to one raise but i will just call if there is a raise then a hefty rerasie only because you now have two or more people representing a good hand...and any pocket pair is now the favorite. You dont want to be in the position preflop to have to hit to win....you want the others to have to do that....so i would prob push with just one raise but not more than 2 only because you may be behind.

[UMTerp]

If you can get all-in with AK vs. two lower pairs, that's pretty advantageous though. Like AK vs. JJ vs. 99 or something...

[Spladle Master]

[ QUOTE ]
I would say that basic strat for me with AK is not to flat call to one raise but i will just call if there is a raise then a hefty rerasie only because you now have two or more people representing a good hand...and any pocket pair is now the favorite. You dont want to be in the position preflop to have to hit to win....you want the others to have to do that....so i would prob push with just one raise but not more than 2 only because you may be behind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Worst. Strategy. Ever.

[DonkeyKong]

since this is twoplustwo, Sklanksy's advice is to bet all-in when that amount is 2-5x the size of the pot.

Betting less than this encourages pairs to stay on or re-raise you all-in. Betting more than this is asking to only get called by aces, kings or queens... none of which you are favored against.

AQ/AJ might re-raise you all-in but they are unlikely to call.

in Lederers NL dvd, he talks about limping from early position with AK and then making a big re-raise if raised.
If only called and no ace or king flops, you can muck with only the cost of a limp. You will have to be careful if only flop a pair but you should be able to get away from it if necessary.

[tigerite]

This is exactly what I follow. Unfortunately for me, I always seem to get called by 10-10 and such like, and don't catch, but I think they are the ones making a mistake calling with such a hand, rather than my move. So I'm comfortable with it.

[jcm4ccc]

I'm not completely certain I understand your strategy.

Let's say the blinds are 10/20, and you are on the button with AKo.

1. Everybody folds to you. What do you do (I assume you'll raise it 3XBB. You're not really interested in stealing the 30 chips in the blinds, are you?)?

2. One person raises it to 60 chips. Everybody else folds to you. What do you do (It's a little better, but now you're only getting 90 chips if everybody folds)?

3. One person raises it 150 chips. I assume you go all-in.

4. One person raises it 100 chips, and another person reraises it to 200 chips. I assume you go all-in.

5. One person raises it 100 chips, and another person goes all-in. Do you call the all-in, or do you fold?

If I understand correctly, your general strategy is to go all-in with AKo when there is a significant amount of chips in the pot that you might be able to get without a showdown. You're not afraid of a call, but you would prefer stealing the chips to a showdown.

[tigerite]

From my POV:

1. 3xBB, standard
2. 60+20+10 in the pot, so 90, I'd raise to a little under 2xpot, so I can maybe get away from the hand, so 150 ish?
3. Depends - assuming 800 starting stacks, probably, yes. If 1000 then probably not because 150+20+10 = 180, in this case I smooth call.
4. I don't like to go all in to re-raises, but if I smooth call then I am committing 25% of my stack to a draw, so I probably push here. Problem is that re-raiser isn't folding whatever, so I would have to be very sure he was on AQ or less to do this. It's debatable.
5. FOLD.

[UMTerp]

Here are my defaults. Basically, I really overbet the pot early with this hand, because for the most part, players are really stupid, and have no concept of the difference between a 3BB raise and a 8BB raise, at least until you get to the higher limit SNGs. I'm obviously not pushing all in if it's folded to me, but I'll bet more than normal. I have no interest in playing multiway pots at ANY point of a SNG, unless I can limp with a pair in the first two levels.

[ QUOTE ]

1. Everybody folds to you. What do you do (I assume you'll raise it 3XBB. You're not really interested in stealing the 30 chips in the blinds, are you?)?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll usually raise to 120 or 140.

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2. One person raises it to 60 chips. Everybody else folds to you. What do you do (It's a little better, but now you're only getting 90 chips if everybody folds)?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll raise to 240 or so. This is the one I hate though, because I don't know what to do when he calls, I miss the flop, and he checks to me.

[ QUOTE ]
3. One person raises it 150 chips. I assume you go all-in.

4. One person raises it 100 chips, and another person reraises it to 200 chips. I assume you go all-in.

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Yep.

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5. One person raises it 100 chips, and another person goes all-in. Do you call the all-in, or do you fold?

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I'll usually call, but it's player dependent.

[ QUOTE ]
If I understand correctly, your general strategy is to go all-in with AKo when there is a significant amount of chips in the pot that you might be able to get without a showdown. You're not afraid of a call, but you would prefer stealing the chips to a showdown.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, more or less. Now that I think about it, that may be one of the reasons my ROI isn't quite as high as everyone else's here (it's been hovering between 0.22 and 0.30, 8-tabling four $25's and four $55's). I'm almost positive being uber-aggresive with AK early is +EV, but it may be only slightly. I don't really ming losing 47% of the time and firing up another SNG though.

[OIAWWP]

I like to limp in with Ak when i am first to act. With AK I would look for someone to raise me and then I would move about 75% of my chips in. By not moving all in you give a little bit of deception to your hand. Your goal is for you not to see the flop because you might be a 5 % dog in the hand if he has a underpair. Obviously, you can't win the tourney in the first hand, so I just like to collect the two blinds plus the raise( say 30 to 90) chips. And wait until the blinds get to 100-200. If someone calls your bet, you obviously push all in after the flop, but I think it is more crucial to establish a tight imagine in these tourneys in order to collect the blinds in the late stages with 4 to 6 people left. IT Is not a profitable play to go 50 -50 early on in the tourney.

[DonkeyKong]

This 75% strategy can be similar to flopping a 4-Flush... By betting the majority of your chips but not all of them, you intentionally pot commit yourself to going all-in on the next card. yet it isn't as obvious that you are on a flush draw since the standard play is to move all-in here. also, you may even get a bad player to fold on 4th street if he misses his draw and is now playing for the rest of his chips.

[OIAWWP]

good point, donkeykong. I didn't express it, but you are right. By betting after the flop, you still give the opponet a chance to fold his hand. If you move all in your hands are now tied to the cards.

[UMTerp]

Yeah, maybe I'll start trying that. Rather than push, just bet 1000 of the 1500 chips. Then when the board comes QT4 and I push the other 500 in on the turn, who knows what he'll do with that pair of 9's... Like a stop and go though, this would be better with early position on the guy.

[OIAWWP]

one final thought. one mistake i think people make is to raise to 30 or 45 chips. You are then going to give a small pair a chance to hit his trips for 3 to 4.5 % of his chips. Say someone calls you, the flop comes 10 5 2. How then are you going to play your AK?? you are in no mans land. Even if you do flop a K or A you might be in for big trouble.

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, maybe I'll start trying that. Rather than push, just bet 1000 of the 1500 chips. Then when the board comes QT4 and I push the other 500 in on the turn, who knows what he'll do with that pair of 9's... Like a stop and go though, this would be better with early position on the guy.

[/ QUOTE ]

If your opponent is insane enough to call a 1K raise with 99, do you really think he's gonna fold it on the flop for 500 more?

I think limping and re-raising enough to commit yourself is a bad strategy.
First of all, there is a strong possibility that no one will raise behind you, and you will be stuck in a multiway pot with a hand that likes to be heads-up or 3-way-in-position.
If someone does raise, and you make a huge reraise, few people will flat-call you. They will either fold or re-raise you all-in.
If they re-raise you all-in, you are likely in trouble. Yeah, sometimes they will have AQ or worse, but generally people will play much tighter against a re-raise then against a raise. Yet you will have committed yourself, and will have to call.
If they fold, you win only a small pot with a hand that is fairly easy to play on the flop and is great for doubling up against post-flop calling stations.
It's a bit like making a huge raise with it from the get-go. You will win a small pot the majority of the time, but lose a catastrophic amount of chips those times that you are called. And those small pots are worth less than the amount you lose when they play backfires.

Myself, I like to raise AKs-AKo from any position. The amount I raise depends on the number of limpers and also to some extent on my position. For example, if I'm in the big blind and several people have limped in, I will make a larger raise than usual. When I'm out of position like that, I really want to narrow the field & make the limpers pay heavily for their positional advantage.
Basically, my goal is to either win the pot right there or to narrow the field down to 1 or 2 players.
If I'm reraised all-in, I will usually fold.
If someone makes a smaller re-raise, well then I may do one of several things. I may re-raise all-in, flat-call the raise, or even fold depending on my read of the player, the size of the raise, the number and position of other players in the hand, and my position. For example, if I raise on the button, the BB re-raises me, and it's folded to me, I may just call and see a flop. The pot is already heads-up, and I will have position for the rest of the hand.
But if I open-raise in MP and get two callers, I'm probably re-raising all-in if the BB raises me. I will still have position on the BB, but if I just call, the two callers behind me will likely call as well. I don't want to play a 4-way pot out of position, so I re-raise to get rid of the callers.

Etc...

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
one final thought. one mistake i think people make is to raise to 30 or 45 chips. You are then going to give a small pair a chance to hit his trips for 3 to 4.5 % of his chips. Say someone calls you, the flop comes 10 5 2. How then are you going to play your AK??

[/ QUOTE ]

I also like a slightly larger raise on level 1, not to get pairs to fold (they will call anyway) but to charge loose players heavily for playing their inferior hands.
Why is that flop hard to play? If it's multiway, you check and fold. If it's heads up, bet and fold to a raise. If called, check/fold unless you improve. If 3-way and you're in position, also take a stab if it's checked to you. Pretty simple IMO.

[DonkeyKong]

caveat: when you run into AA or KK in a tournament, that is part of the game and you move on. This situation happens but there isn't much you can do about it. So the real issue is how to maximize the borderline situations.

Pretend you hold a hand like AQ in late position. What is it you DON'T want to see out of AK?

If the guy in EP limps, you are going to raise him with AQ/AJ as you probably think he is limping with JT-suited or 76-suited or QJ or something and you want to make him pay to draw at you...

But what if you have 88? You will just call a small bet and try to flop a set.

So, if you have AK and limp from early position, you will likely get re-raised by lesser hands... but no more money goes into the pot when you are behind the middle pairs.

Now if nobody raises you, then you have only put 15/30 chips in the pot so you can easily get away from it.

If you get re-raised, then I would go ahead and move all-in. I don't think there is any shame in exiting a tournament with AK in a race. You are probably going to have to win a race sooner or later anyway -- might as well be here. But most of the time, you will just pick up the pot right there without having to hit your hand. Moreover, may people fear that people play AA/KK this same way.

When you run into QQ or JJ and lose the race, you move on to another SNG. When you win, you can wait for the table to get short-handed and now be the big-stack blind-stealer of the short stacks.

When the flop comes and the other guy makes his set, you will lose some chips but why not just make a good stab at the pot and then just shut-down if called. It doesn't even matter if you hit your A or K, you are playing this just like you would KK or AA except that you will fold to a re-raise.

[OIAWWP]

you make some good points, but my philosophy is a little different. Well, first of all, you said if someone calls your big raise you are in trouble. NOT really. IF someone has AA or KK you are going to lose all your chips but other wise you are likely to be a coin flip to huge favorite(AQ). Another reason i like to check is to see how many callers you get. If their are 4 callers then a raise I will NOT move all in, and in fact maybe fold, becasue my A's and K's are proably out there(A7suited etcc.)

[DonkeyKong]

OIAWWP,

do you play the other side of this coin? if you have JJ/QQ and there are 4 callers in front of you, are you more likely to make a move given that the aces are out (A7-suited etc...)?

[DonkeyKong]

It is important to point out that if you are not all-in or pot-committed before the flop with AK, you are not in a coin-flip. You are only going to hit the flop 1/3 of the time so you are well behind at this point. So with deep stacks, AK is a very difficult hand to play in NL. I would go so far as to call it a flawed hand when stacks are deep.

Did you see Freddy Deeb vs Negreanu in the Plaza tournament when Deeb held AK? Deeb made his K on the flop and Negreanu took a huge pot away from him with nothing. Playing a single pair in NL sucks.

[OIAWWP]

yes, if i have JJ or qq, and there are a lot of callers i will move in and hope to capture the blind money. Good chance two people each have an Ace, so now there are probably only 3 or 4 cards in the deck I can lose to if someone calls with AK. The only one i am scared of is the first limper.

[UMTerp]

As a side note, Negreanu's Card Player article about that hand is great for those that haven't read it yet.

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
caveat: when you run into AA or KK in a tournament, that is part of the game and you move on. This situation happens but there isn't much you can do about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree somewhat; running into AA-KK with AK in an early all-in may be rare, but it's so devastating when it happens that it is important to learn to fold AK in certain circumstances.

[ QUOTE ]
If the guy in EP limps, you are going to raise him with AQ/AJ as you probably think he is limping with JT-suited or 76-suited or QJ or something and you want to make him pay to draw at you...

[/ QUOTE ]

You're imagining a player who is somewhat LAG himself (raising with AJ in the early levels) and also reads you as being very loose (limping JTs/QJo in eary position). He is not likely to fold his AQ/AJ to your raise. If you both flop top pair, you will likely take this loose player's stack. However, if you limp and check-raise him preflop, he may well fold his AJ as a check-raise looks very strong and can scare even loose players.
The other problem here is if someone in late position raises, you don't really know where you stand. He may be raising with a big pair, after all. Now when you re-raise him and he re-raises you back, you are probably commited as a big dog. If you had raised right away and the same player re-raised you, you might have been able to get away from your hand depending on the size of his re-raise.
Also, if you re-raise and get called, you will have commited a lot of chips out of position against a LAG, with a hand that often misses the flop. If you raise right away and get called, however, you will lose less when you miss, and you will need to spend less to semi-bluff at the flop.

[ QUOTE ]
But what if you have 88? You will just call a small bet and try to flop a set.

So, if you have AK and limp from early position, you will likely get re-raised by lesser hands... but no more money goes into the pot when you are behind the middle pairs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think your thinking here is confused. Yes, a hand like 88 beats AK in an all-in runoff, but we're not talking about that here. You want to CHARGE 88 to draw for his set, since he will a. miss much more often than you and b. will have to fold on/after the flop more often than you if you both miss.
Also, a LAG player who raises AJ may well decide to raise with 88 in late position as well.
Also, as mentioned above, it's not like you'll lose the same player by raising if he has AQ/AJ.

On top of all this, limping lets in hands like AT and K8s that can end up reverse-dominating you and taking your stack in situations when you can't really get away from your hand. E.g., you limp in EP, 1 other limp in LP, SB completes, BB checks. Flop is T84 rainbow. Checked around. Turn is K. You bet pot, LP limper calls, blinds fold. River is a blank, you bet, LP raises all-in. Or, you check, LP bets half pot. You call, he has K8.

[DonkeyKong]

>>As a side note, Negreanu's Card Player article about that hand is great for those that haven't read it yet.

yah, Lederer was the commentator on that hand and said at the time that he really didn't like Freddys river bet. After the hand was over and Negreanu had shown his bluff, he kind of agreed with Freddy's laydown saying something to the effect of ~'4 out of 5 times a fold there is correct Freddy.'

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
It is important to point out that if you are not all-in or pot-committed before the flop with AK, you are not in a coin-flip. You are only going to hit the flop 1/3 of the time so you are well behind at this point. So with deep stacks, AK is a very difficult hand to play in NL. I would go so far as to call it a flawed hand when stacks are deep.

Did you see Freddy Deeb vs Negreanu in the Plaza tournament when Deeb held AK? Deeb made his K on the flop and Negreanu took a huge pot away from him with nothing. Playing a single pair in NL sucks.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're seriously undervaluing some of AK's strengths. Reread the section on AK in Super/System.

[UMTerp]

I would hardly call anything that happens in a $20 SNG "desvasting". That made me laugh.

You do make some valid points though - I rarely if ever limp with AK. I will with aces or kings early on though.

My thinking is that you can find players willing to go to battle with either 88 or AJ for all their chips preflop. Obviously they are terrible players, but they're out there. If there's a 60% chance they have an underpair, a 25% chance they have AQ or AJ, and a 5% chance they have AA or KK, I'll throw my chips in every time. Basically, I'm just looking to extract the max from these terrible players that are prevalent at the lower levels. If it means I go bust earlier than I "should" a little more often, or if I don't win a smallish multiway pot when reraise and they fold rather than call with position, I can live with that.

[DonkeyKong]

>>running into AA-KK with AK in an early all-in may be rare, but it's so devastating when it happens that it is important to learn to fold AK in certain circumstances.

I don't think losing AK to AA is devastating in a 1-table tournament.

I think AK is a positive +EV hand from all positions so long as you are all-in or pot-committed pre-flop. When your stack is huge relative to the blinds, I revert to Sklansky's rule: don't overbet the pot by more than 5x. So I am generally not moving in with AK from early position.

I don't mind blowing out to AA when I am dealt AK. Only 3 ways to make AA when I hold AK so that happens very, very rarely and when it does, I boot up another SNG. I am not playing $10,000 buy-in tourneys here where you are not playing enough tourneys to diversify this risk across tourneys.

Sometimes, I get premium hands like QQ/AK/KK during the first 2 levels of play and then don't see another one for the rest of the tournament. AK is not a hand I am looking to get away from unless somebody moves in on me first and takes away its fold equity.

[OIAWWP]

i echo your statement donkey, a hand you don't want to get away from. you will go to war with Ak, i like to get blinds plus a raiser if i can without seeing any cards.

[Irieguy]

If you are finishing 9th holding AK, you have a big leak. This is a negative $EV thread.

Irieguy

[ilya]

The part about running into AA-KK is actually the part of my post that I feel least strongly about. I just mean that there are certain plays that stink very strongly of AA-KK, like someone limping in early position and then re-raising not-all-in. And I do think it's important to be able to get away from AK wnen you run into plays like that.

[UMTerp]

It's not like it's often -

Finishing Position
Place Times Percent
1 65 17.43%
2 48 12.87%
3 49 13.14%
4 36 9.65%
5 55 14.75%
6 37 9.92%
7 36 9.65%
8 31 8.31%
9 16 4.29%
TOTAL 373 100.00%

And like I said, I'm almost positive that I've doubled through more with it than I've lost with it. I'd guess that 6 or 8 of the 16 last place finishes are races I've lost with AK though.

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
If you are finishing 9th holding AK, you have a big leak. This is a negative $EV thread.


[/ QUOTE ]

Myself, I tend to fold AK to an all-in reraise, but when someone makes a smaller re-raise, though I sometimes fold, I also sometimes call or re-raise all-in. Do you play tighter against a re-raise?

[Irieguy]

If you hadn't gone broke with those 8 hands, your 9th place percentage would be around 2%.

You could argue that your 1st place finishes wouldn't be as frequent without the AK double-ups, I suppose. But I would submit that a first-hand all-in has less of an affect on your first place percentage than it does on your 9th place percentage.

Irieguy

[tigerite]

I don't go all in with AK myself often early - to a re-raise I am very careful with it, for instance - but if there's a raise, and a call or two, I'm likely to go all-in to try to buy the pot, figuring most players won't want to go to war with a midpair early in the game, and even if called I am not in the worst shape. Is this the wrong strategy?

[DonkeyKong]

so long as you aren't making a mistake, it doesn't matter if you go out 9th or 4th or 10th. if others are going to raise with AQ or AJ, you better be willing to go to war with AK or else you have a leak. This was the original assumption in the first post. If the donkeys aren't in that corral, than don't do it but usually there are enough donkeys to do it.

At the end of the day, you are either going to catch some cards or else you are going to have to win some races to get ITM. With AK, you are almost always in a fair race and sometimes in a dominating position, this is +EV so long as you don't overbet the pot.

[texasrattlers]

Could tou post a link to this article? Or do you remember the title so I can find it?

Thanks

[Vetstadium]

When you play lower levels people fall in love with there mid pairs, if playing the 22's or 33's some of the dopes think any reraise is just a play on them and like to move all in with inferior hands. In the first couple rounds I hope my notes come into play because if you know the dope will call in first round with 8's don't make a play on him with AK. Mid tourn say 5 left I will go down with the hand because at that point I usually need chips for my tight early play for a chance to make it to money. So I guess I am a little tight early with AK just depends. Probably makes no sense what I just said lol.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would say that basic strat for me with AK is not to flat call to one raise but i will just call if there is a raise then a hefty rerasie only because you now have two or more people representing a good hand...and any pocket pair is now the favorite. You dont want to be in the position preflop to have to hit to win....you want the others to have to do that....so i would prob push with just one raise but not more than 2 only because you may be behind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Worst. Strategy. Ever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, not the worst strategy ever. At least you made a step up from calling him an idiot.

[Spladle Master]

[ QUOTE ]
I would say that basic strat for me with AK is not to flat call to one raise but i will just call if there is a raise then a hefty rerasie only because you now have two or more people representing a good hand...and any pocket pair is now the favorite. You dont want to be in the position preflop to have to hit to win....you want the others to have to do that....so i would prob push with just one raise but not more than 2 only because you may be behind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Allow me to elaborate.

On the first hand of a SnG, everyone starts with a decent-sized stack (say, at least 50xBB). If someone puts in a normal raise (3xBB), re-raising all-in puts you in horrible shape. If the raiser has a hand like a weaker ace, they'll almost certainly fold, in which case you've missed out on a potentially profitably situation. If they've got a big pair, they're going to call, and you're going to be either a small dog or a huge dog.

On the other hand, you might get someone with jacks or tens to fold. But then again, maybe not. Either way, you're risking a lot to win a little, and that's just not a good idea in general. I don't mind smooth-calling a pre-flop raise with AK on the first hand of a tournament, so long as it's a normal-sized raise. If someone were to raise, say, 10xBB, I'd probably put in a huge over-the-top re-raise, but usually that's not going to happen.

If there is a raise and then a re-raise, then there will be a lot of dead money in the pot to go after with a big re-raise. Although the chances of running into aces or kings is considerably increased (given that there was a re-raise), your chances of getting someone to lay down a hand like jacks or tens are also considerably increased, since you are coming over the top of two other players (and therefore indicating quite a bit of strength).

Oh, and it doesn't matter whether there was one raise or two . . . Any pocket pair is ALWAYS a favorite over AK (barring the exception of AKs vs. 22). If you're up against a pocket pair, you are ALWAYS in a position of having to hit to win. You've got a better chance of hitting if you get to see all five cards.

With one raiser, you may be behind. With a raiser and a re-raiser, you are almost CERTAINLY behind (and at the very least, probably tied). However, the beauty of AK is that, barring the exception of two hands, you are never very FAR behind, and so it cannot be much of a mistake to go all-in with the hand when you've got a good chance of winning what's already in the pot by getting others to fold better hands and a decent chance of winning the pot anyway even if you are called (one might call AK the ultimate semi-bluff hand).

And that is why I think your strategy is very poor.