AK, early position
 

When UTG, UTG+1, and MP1, do you raise with AKs, AKo, and AQs. I always have and lately have been considering just limping in most situations. I normally play 2-4 at PP. These games are usually very loose and i end up with 2-3 callers plus 1 or both blinds. This is great when i hit but when i miss i am lost. Since i miss more than i hit I realize i need to find a beter way to play this situation and get it right.
When i do miss i usually continuation bet. Fine. 4th street, again bet. 5th street. still nothing, i got it heads up against the button. do i bet?, check call, or check fold. normally if the board has some missed draws i would bet out hoping he missed his draw while he may have picked up a small pair on 4th or something. so he may fold a better hand. if its connected, big cards, or 3 flush i may check call. never check fold unless board is really scary. If i do bet out and get raised i always call.
My thinking is if these hands play well multi or short i might as well limp, and 3-bet if it gets raised. i am comfortable 3-betting all three of these hands in most situations and often i can make a few players face 2 bets instead of 1, thus narrowing the field and leaving dead money in the pot. BTW, a high percentage of these pots get rasied, so because of that i think this may be the best stategy. Yes i know when the pot isn't raised i am giving too much up, but in early positon after the flop i think i tend to want to keep the lead. that is costing me bets, this may be the root of the whole problem. should i not bet when i misss, check/call, check fold. I know this is a sticky situation for a lot of players and maybe a leak for me? dunno. I appreciate all of the thoughts on how you guys handle it.
Anyways i know a asked a lot of questions and posed a few situations, please respond the the ones i got most wrong?

Re: AK, early position
 

Keep raising them preflop. Don't be results oriented and start limping premium hands. Your problem seems to be postflop play with these hands unimproved, not preflop.

If the board is drawy, and you miss, why bet the river? You should check and hope to induce a bluff. If the board doesn't contain draws, you should be check-folding. Sometimes it's right to value-bet AK on the river. If you bet the river unimproved and are raised, you need to have a read on the opponent to call, otherwise what hands are you putting them on.

Sometimes when you raise it in EP and miss the flop, you will check instead of continuation betting. It depends on the flop, how many players are in, etc.

I think you would be better off posting some hands where these situations came up so you could get specific feedback.

Re: AK, early position
 

if you are limping these you will be playing against 5-6 people, not 2 or 3... we both realize you have pot equity to raise, but the mistake comes in when you miss. It is all about board texture. I usually dont continuation bet into any more than 2 other players on a board unless it is just ridiculously raggy (952 rainbow)

Re: AK, early position
 

You want to raise these hands because you have pot equity over just about every other hand dealt. It's VERY likely you have the best hand now and want to punish people for playing inferior hands.

Please look and search for some posts on playing overcards, this will help you the most. You have to be very comfortable playing overcards when they miss (which they do more often than not). Post some hands and ask for advice.

Re: AK, early position
 

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Sometimes when you raise it in EP and miss the flop, you will check instead of continuation betting. It depends on the flop, how many players are in, etc.

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As far as the amount of players go, when do u decide to check instead of bet. Would u bet into 2 players or only HU? Would u ever bet into 3 with a pretty ragged board?

As far as just limping goes with OP's starting hands, I would also continue to raise those hands preflop. In HPFAP, They tell u to limp occasionally with the suited versions of the hands u mentioned, in order to vary ur play since they do well in multiways and shorthanded, but the unsuited versions dont want multiway pots.

I generally raise all those hands in EP regardless if theyre suited or not. I figure the the EV gain in raising these hands preflop outweigh the advantages of varying ur play by simply limping. When the advantage of varying ur play by limping with big suited broadways overcomes the ev gained by raising preflp, its probably timeto find a new game anyways.

Re: AK, early position
 

thanks great advice. i agree with eveyone, i know i have to be raiseing these hands. I guess the leak is postflop being out of position with A high. i like the not continuation betting into more then 2 people, that is a good rule of thumb and will definetly employ that one.