how far do you go with AK unimproved?

[steveyz]

In my marathon session last night, I caught AK 10 times. Except for the last time, none hit an ace or king on the flop. (One turned a king, and one rivered an ace, and one flopped broadway :-). But in general, with AK and rags floppings (not a dangerous board), how far do you go with AK? I always had either 2 or 3 opponents for these hands. Here's a few of the hands for review:

Hand 1
--------------------

Party Poker 3/6 (10 handed)
AbsolutPower has A/images/graemlins/club.gif, K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif and is EP2

UTG limps, AbsolutPower raises, CO calls, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls, UTG calls

Flop(8 1/3 SB): 2/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 4/images/graemlins/heart.gif

BB checks, UTG checks, AbsolutPower bets, CO raises, BB folds, UTG folds, AbsolutPower 3-bets, CO calls

Turn(7 1/6 BB): 7/images/graemlins/club.gif

AbsolutPower bets, CO calls

River(9 1/6 BB): 2/images/graemlins/heart.gif

AbsolutPower checks, CO bets, AbsolutPower folds

------------------------------
Hand 2
------------------------------

Party Poker 3/6 (10 handed)
AbsolutPower has A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K/images/graemlins/heart.gif and is UTG

MP1 limps, Button raises, BB folds, AbsolutPower 3-bets, MP1 calls, Button caps, AbsolutPower calls, MP1 calls

Flop(12 1/3 SB): 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif, J/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif

AbsolutPower checks, MP1 checks, Button bets, AbsolutPower calls, MP1 calls

Turn(7 2/3 BB): 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif

AbsolutPower checks, MP1 checks, Button bets, AbsolutPower folds, MP1 calls

River(9 2/3 BB): Q/images/graemlins/club.gif

MP1 checks, Button bets, MP1 calls

----------------------------
Hand 3
----------------------------

Party Poker 3/6 (9 handed)
AbsolutPower has A/images/graemlins/club.gif, K/images/graemlins/club.gif and is CO

UTG limps, EP1 limps, MP3 limps, AbsolutPower raises, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls, UTG calls, EP1 calls, MP3 calls

Flop(10 1/3 SB): 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif, T/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif

BB checks, UTG checks, EP1 checks, MP3 checks, AbsolutPower bets, BB folds, UTG calls, EP1 calls, MP3 folds

Turn(6 2/3 BB): 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif

UTG checks, EP1 checks, AbsolutPower bets, UTG calls, EP1 calls

River(9 2/3 BB): 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif

UTG checks, EP1 checks, AbsolutPower checks

[cold_cash]

Put on your bettin' shoes and pound that sucker to death.

Right BigEndian?

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Sorry, I couldn't resist this after reading that post title. I'm not sure why but I'm still laughing...

[Joe Tall]

I wrote a standard operating procedure for AK a while back check it out:

AK - SOP (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=433894&page=&view=&sb =5&o=&vc=1)

Welcome to the forum,
Joe Tall

[jasonHoldEm]

Ok, I'll take a shot since this is an area I'm working on.

Hand 1 - Your play is sorta confusing here, it seems to me you're trying to force him out of the hand but you fail to bet the river and then fold when you induce a bluff. If your read on CO is that he'll lay down keep betting, if not I call his raise on the flop and check/fold if unimproved.

Hand 2 - Did you limp-reraise AKo?? That's amateur hour in my opinion (maybe I'm reading your descrption incorrectly, if so I appoligize). This is an ugly flop, and I think your check/call is a bad move. The button has shown significant strength preflop and you missed, I think there is little to no chance you can win this hand without a showdown. Your outs are very dirty...I think you should check/fold most of the time (unless the button in known to be overaggressive in which case I check/raise).

Hand 3 - Unless my opponents are known to be tricky I value bet the river almost all the time.

(How did I do?)

J

[Mike Gallo]

Hand 1 - Your play is sorta confusing here, it seems to me you're trying to force him out of the hand but you fail to bet the river and then fold when you induce a bluff. If your read on CO is that he'll lay down keep betting, if not I call his raise on the flop and check/fold if unimproved.

You have taken too many lessons from the "Coach". /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[jasonHoldEm]

MG, Thanks for your input, would you have played it the same as original poster? It seems to me like this is one of those hands that needs to go one way or the other and OP is playing it middle of the road and losing money. No offense to anyone, I'm trying to learn.

Interested what you have to say about my other hands too.

Thanks,
J

[Mike Gallo]

Jason,

In hand one I think the poster misplayed his AK.

I think he failed to fire the last barrel. I do not understand why he didnt bet the river and chose to fold on the river.

I did give much thought to the rest of the hands.

[steveyz]

Hand 1 - ... yes I confuse myself sometimes. My read on the CO was that if I 3-bet and he didn't fold on the flop I was in trouble. And if he calls a turn bet I was screwed. I felt confident I was beat so I laid it down. In retrospect, I probably should have fired again on the river or call the flop raise & fold the turn unimproved.

Hand 2 - I think the hand converter messed up, or else the PP history messed up, because I definitely didn't limp-reraise (I pretty much never limp reraise with anything, even AA). And I agree, limp raising with AK is definitely wrong.

Thanks for your input.