I have problems with AK on Party 10+1's

[Thehoff]

I have lost tons of chips lately with ak early or mid position lately. Especially in the first levels (1-3). Right now i just feel its best to limp or just doubble the blind if the pot is unraised. But that cant be the best tactic can it?

Here is how I have lost chips:

Ex. bb is 15 and im first out. If I raise to say 50 I will most of the time get called by 1-4 players. I dont know the exact odds but the chanse of hitting anything on the flop isnt very good.. perhaps 25%. Ofcourse if the flop doesnt hit and Im up against more than one opponent I check. And in 95% of the time regardless of flop someone will bet at it. And ofcourse I fold. A 50 bet preflop is not going to take the 22's or the Ax or the 67s out of the field trust me! In the early levels the table is still full of morons.

And what to do if I get reraised preflop? That happens VERY often and I just dont know what to do anymore. What if someones raises my 50 to 150 or 200? Right now I feel like folding to 200 and most likely also 150. 125 is an easy call. I have read that some would go all in here. Perhaps it works in the higher buyins. But Im sure its wrong on 10+1. They will call almost always! Often with low pocketpairs.

So, perhaps 80-90% of the times i get AK in the early levels I end up foldning having lost 3 BB's. However i do hit my hand sometimes but its really hard to make alot of chips first out. Perhaps 20% of the times I hit I doubble up, 70 % i win 100-400 netto and 10% I lose to twopair, trips etc. often all in.

That was how I have been playing and it has not gone well lately. Perhaps I have just been unlucky.. but I dont think so. How should I play? If you answer: I would be glad to if you let me know your ROI and # 10+1 games played

// TheHoff

[Unparagoned]

I can't vouch for whether this is the best way to play AK, but if I pick up big slick in early position, I want to raise to about 100 chips with the intention of betting at pretty much any flop. So, typically, I will get say one caller and that caller will likely have position on me, so I am just going to bet the pot at them and make them make a choice. I find that most of the time, people at the 10+1 level will simply lay down their hands. I would say that the biggest problem you are running into is simply the fact that you make a raise you know a large variety of hands will call. Much harder to try and pick up pots when you don't know what kind of hands you'll be up against I think.

[Michael C.]

I don't play at that level, but I don't know that pushing all-in vs. the reraise is a bad play vs. bad players. Aren't a lot of those players raising with AJ or AQ? If they have a pocket pair other than AA or KK, you're only a slight dog, which I think the times you have them dominated makes up for. Of course this only applies at the very low level games, since not many in the 109 or 215 games are going to pre-push with a less than premium hand.

[ilya]

Re-raising all-in with AK early on is a BETTER play at the $10s than at higher buy-ins. Yes, the small/medium pairs will call you....but so will many dominated Aces.

You will hit at least 1 pair about 33% of the time (not 25% of the time as you write). Play the hand strongly when you hit; be willing to put all your chips in most of the time.

Don't worry about having to fold when you miss. The times when you hit and take an AJ's or KQ's whole stack more than make up for all those times you have to fold and lose your 50 chips.

[Insty]

[ QUOTE ]
I find that most of the time, people at the 10+1 level will simply lay down their hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where are you playing? Surely not at party..
I'm sure some of them don't even have a fold button.
Which would be ok if they didn't keep hitting their runner runner flushes.