help with AK

[squallA964]

I need serious help with how to play AK. It seems like no matter what I do, I can never win with it. I bust out of more tourneys and lose more chips with this hand than anything. It doesnt matter if I raise huge, go All in, or whatever...it simply never (*&^%$& wins. If I'm short stacked and push it all in, I get called by A-rag and lose everytime. Most of the time an A or K doesnt even flop...if my math is right, one of them should flop about 30-35% of the time or so....but they never do. In race situations, I should be winning 43% of the time. Ive been keeping track for 2 months now....I'm winning 18%. The percentages were similar before I started keeping track. And, if by a miracle I do flop an A or K, someone hits an amazing runner-runner flush or straight.

I do want to emphasize I don't play it recklessly or anything. I'm not calling down or pushing it in when it's obvious it should be folded. 99% of the time, when I push it, I have the best hand. It's AFTER I push it that everything changes. Either pre-flop when Im shortstacked, or postflop when its the best hand (before it gets destroyed on the turn or river, usually when me or my opponent is already all in. It's just ALWAYS getting sucked out on. I've been keeping track for two months, but I've been playing online since June and it's been the case ever since I started playing. I'm not gonna lie and say I havent won with it, but the victories are so few and far between as to be negligible. And when I lose, it's always the difference between money and no money, or 9th and the Top 3. I can't win the key hands with it, the hands that make a difference between winning a tourney and finishing 10th.

Just now is a perfect example. I'm UTG, 2nd stack at the table, and I raise 3x BB, putting short stacked BB all in. MP chip leader (we have about the same chips) reraises a minimum raise. BB calls and I call. Flop is like K, 7, 2, with two diamonds. I push the rest of my chips in. He calls me down with JJ. Turn diamond, river diamond, and I get beat by the flush. This is EXACTLY what always happens. There's nothing else I coulda done, and I tell myself that....but it happens to me MUCH MORE than the percentages say it should, and I can't find a reason for it. And although I've thought about just folding it preflop many MANY times, I can't bring myself to do it. I even folded AA once preflop, in a 10+1 SNG, just to see how it felt. But I can't fold AK. And it's killing me. I'm not a huge winning player, but I am a winning player....except for this hand.

What do I do with what I've come to believe is the biggest farce in poker? I'm not trying to disguise this as a bad beat post, I just honestly want to know if there's something I should be doing that I'm not with this hand.

[the_rookie]

[ QUOTE ]
I even folded AA once preflop, in a 10+1 SNG, just to see how it felt.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's no reason to fold AA.

Tournaments are tough to play in because one bad beat could mean the end of your tournament.

You can't prevent someone from willingly going all in as a huge underdog.... That is what you want. Sometimes the cards just don't fall the way we wish they would. Oh well, that is poker.

If you can't take busting out of tournaments maybe you shouldn't play them. That's why I stopped playing em.. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I prefer to play limit hold em cash games as it seems to provide some stability. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[jtr]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not trying to disguise this as a bad beat post...

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry to be a jerk, but that's what it is.

Sounds like you're doing most of the right things with AK, you're just having a poor run with it. I don't play tournaments so take this with a grain of salt, but perhaps you're expecting too high a winrate with the hand: you seem to be well aware that you're slightly less than a coinflip if you go all-in against a single lower pocket pair, but that doesn't mean you'll win with this hand exactly 45% of the time or anything. It depends on how aggressively you and your opponents play postflop. I wonder whether you're pushing AK unimproved a little too hard? You know the deal, continuing to bet repeatedly when only a hand that beats you would be calling, etc.

Just looking over some old data of mine on playing AKo in NL ring games, and I find that I only took down a pot with it about 20% of the time. I played it like a complete wuss, but it nevertheless won money for me. Maybe try lowering your expectations of the hand a few notches?

[Stork]

[squallA964]

LMAO. Now THAT is funny. I shouldn't be laughing, since you're making fun of me, but if it's good, it's good.

Well, I seriously did want to know what I need to do differently with this hand, but obviously my post sounds too much like whining. I apologize. Thanks to those who looked.

[Stork]

The point is that OBVIOUSLY if you get all the money in with the best hand and are called by a much worse hand, you played it correctly. You knew this when you typed up your initial post because, hell, it's pretty damn obvious. So basically you were just looking for sympathetic responses, and unless your seriously feeling devestated about all this, these types of posts tend to clog up the forum. If you want to post bad beat stories, try the forums over at http://www.cardplayer.com [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Reef]

if you can't play it postflop for your life, just move all in preflop