Frustrated AK play, is it me?

[bigfishead]

I am very frustrated with AK in NL cash games. 1-2 blinds, 2-4 blinds. I call 3 1/2 times BB raises with position consistently or in the BB with intention of trap or muck. I keep flopping top pair, and they keep getting there with AQ. I hate to whine. Looking at my stats I have been a big loser with ALL hands such as QQ, AK, AQ, AJ(rarely play that)KK, KQ, and AA. I play them hard when I flop it, easy muck when I dont. Not once have I been dominated in any of these situations. I dont know if I can get away from these hands at any time. It seems that the prayers of the dominated player keep getting answered.

This is on Party/UB....is it just a little unlucky or am I missing the boat somewhere?

Yet in tournament play I do well with these hands. I took a 2nd today worth a dime and only saw 8% flops thru 475 hands...and that includes shorthanded and headup. yet I also won 75% of all flops seen. In other words I was patient/aggressive. But these cash games are pissing me off. Ok so maybe I am a crybaby and just venting. But any suggestions apreciated.

[crockpot]

if you are constantly losing to AQ, that may be bad luck. but AK does not play well in a big no limit pot. if you flop top pair and all the money goes in, you will either be behind or up against a draw. i regularly muck this hand to a raise from a non-maniac player in no-limit, especially at 1/2 or 2/4 blinds, which are usually too big to attract the types of players who will call a raise with any ace.

[bigfishead]

hmmm....Thank you. Food for thought.

[bugstud]

I don't like calling $10 with $90 left in my stack, I'd either get it allin or fold it to the PF raise. Until you double/triple, there just is not the implied odds that good NL/PL play is supposed to rely on.

[Zag]

There was a really great article about 5 or 6 months back in CardPlayer regarding the play of AK in NL games. I think it was written by Ciaffone, but I'm not sure.

The bit I took out of the article was this:

If the stack sizes are small relative to blinds, say no more than 5 or 6 times (late in a tourney, perhaps), then you want to push all in preflop with AK. Except for those few occasions when you are against AA or KK (which are less likely since you hold one of each) you are either a big favorite or only a slight dog. But you want to be the one betting, not the one calling, and you want to be all in so you can get to the river.

If the stack sizes are huge relative to the blinds, more than 30 times (I'm guessing, here, at the number. This is just the impression I have.) then you can play them strongly preflop, assuming you can outplay your opponents postflop. This gives you enough leverage to get away from trouble, and the implied odds if you hit a big hand.

In between the high and low range, you just muck them. You don't have enough flexibility to get away from trouble, so you will end up all in if you have top pair and lose. Essentially, in this range, you are giving your opponents implied odds, but you don't really have them.

This is just from my memory, you really should go hunt down the article, if you are interested.

Since the structure of the Party and UB Games is puts you right in this muck range, it might explain the trouble you are having with the hand. On the other hand, the players in those games are bad enough that I really think you make enough with top pair top kicker to cover the times that you lose with it, as long as you are wary of the obvious traps.

[felson]

Here's the link:

http://www.cardplayer.com/?sec=afeature&art_id=12995

[Ignatius]

I call 3 1/2 times BB raises with position consistently
.
AK usually plays best either all-in or for about 10% to 15% of your stack preflop so that you deny small pairs implied odds and can get your stack in with at most 2 bets - ideally by raising or check-raising all-in. If the effective stack is somewhere in the 50 to 100 BBs range, this means that you should often reraise preflop, otherwise you'll suffer negative implied odds.
.
If you have to make trap-plays, then make them with big pairs so that you can get paid off by top pair/best kicker if you flop an overpair. AK is a lousy trap hand as it's the first hand you will be put on when you give serious action on a king- or ace-high flop.

[bigfishead]

cash game not tournament.