Move up in Stakes Today.....missed AK bluff doesn't seem to be working

[NiceCatch]

A) Bet more than 1/2 the pot... say about 2/3rds to 3/4ths the pot. See if this makes much of a difference (I say it will).
B) Pay careful attention to the flop texture before deciding what to do on the turn. On a board with obvious flush or straight draws, that look like they didn't make it on the turn, fire the second barrel, to the tune of about 1/2 the pot (or don't; mix it up).
C) Raise more from position, and occasionally limp early with AK, especially at aggressive tables.

PS... what site do you play?

[NiceCatch]

btw, if A) doesn't work, you're going to need to start checking some raised hands on the flop, dependent on number of opponents. It's really about table conditions; if you keep getting called on the flop and then check-check, you're going to have all sorts of hands calling your flop bet, drawing on you for only the cost of the flop bet, and often hijacking your pot. (Hence B) from above.)

[MTBlue]

Yes, periodically I check call an overpair on all three streets for the reason that I want free cards to hit draws and to slow down my opponents. I like the checkdown with unimproved ak because if you bet ak the bet has -ev because any hand that calls you is a slight favorite to a big favorite. Even a drawing hand has between 12-15 outs against you (including pairs with their whole cards). If you want to bluff with ak that's fine but I think the key is remembering that ak isn't semi-bluff- its a pure bluff. The check is just my way of showing my opponents that I don't always have a hand and ak is hand i figure will be good most of the time that it gets checked down. Do you check down small pairs? It's the same idea.

[theben]

try this: how do you play your overpairs (the ones that you also raise before the flop with)? i assume you raise preflop with AA-QQ normally and bet the flop? bet your AK identically to the way you bet AA-QQ as an overpair. bet your AK the way you would if you hit with it.
3/4 to 1x pot is normally good

[creedofhubris]

My suggestions:

Limp AK when you're first into the pot in early position. That will limit the number of times you're in a big pot with no pair and bad position.

Don't bet unimproved AK into more than two players.
Sometimes bet against two opponents.
Usually bet against one opponent.

If you are last to act, tend towards checking, take your free card.
If you are not last to act, tend towards betting, a later opponent is likely to read you as weak and bet any two.