Some AK thoughts.

[Stealthy]

I have given some thought to the wonder hand that is AK. This was after a 2000 hand day yesterday which saw AK as a big looser a lot of which was me down to chip spewing with it somewhat. Here are some thoughts as to how I think I can play this hand in certain situations. I would have saved quite a few BB if I had adopted these lines yesterday I think. All considerations are for when we miss the board entirely as when we hit it is somewhat easier of course.

1. OOP V 1 player - Bet/call flop, bet/fold turn, check/fold river. There are times when we need to check/call river if we consider there is a decent enough chance that our Ace high is good, more so against an aggressive player than a passive one. But check/fold river is the main line against most micro players I think.

2. OOP v 2 players - Same as above except that river will nearly always be a check/fold even with only one left by then.

3. OOP V 3 or more - The pot will be on the large size so we don't want to be over timid here. Betting out on the flop may be the best line but with an agro player in LP a check-raise may be in order to free up some outs. Any other draws we have going for our hand makes this even more important. With a TAG on our left who will either raise or fold the flop then betting out will nearly always be best IMO.

On the turn our pot equity may be quite low and we may be in check/fold territory unless we have got it down to heads up when we might fire again. Only really possible if he only called 1 bet on flop or is the LP bettor as if he called 2 cold he isn't going anywhere.

4. OOP v lone maniac - Whether we look him up or not when he raises our flop bet is very situational but often needs doing. Of course if we make our hand we punnish his LAG tendancies big style.

Note I had on this guy before this hand 'bets & raises light on all streets' his stats were something like 60/31/5

Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (9 max, 9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 3-bets</font>, <font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero caps</font>, MP2 calls.

Flop: (9.50 SB) 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 raises</font>, Hero calls.

Turn: (6.75 BB) 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 3-bets</font>, Hero calls.

River: (12.75 BB) 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 raises</font>, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 16.75 BB

In only realised when retrieving this hand that I had not 3 bet the flop. My one mistake I think. I put him on a smaller King and felt reasonably sure of my hand when the board paired.

These are my initial thoughts on OOP play but feel free to destroy them and come up with better lines. I am a newbie to limit and no nothing really. Please use my same numbering if you wish to contradict any points.

I will post my in position thought later when I have more time. Sadly back to work for me now. Sorry for any typos I had very little time to do this.