AK post flop

[WillMagic]

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Sometimes you just know you're beat and you have to lay it down. Poker is about everything else but the cards.

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ugh. this gimmick account ssssssssssucks.

Will

[WillMagic]

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My thinking was that I would win a huge pot if A or K shows up on the flop

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Um, no you won't.

Your opponent's range is in the neighborhood of AK, AA-99 and maybe AQ. If you flop an A or K you are only going to get played with when you are beat.

Will

[Chaostracize]

Agree agree agree

Will, you are so right. Once again I am not thinking enough about villain's range and instead focusing on my own cards and situation. And 45suited is also right in that I don't try hard enough (if at all) to get reads.

I have really been struggling with AK lately in early rounds. I feel like I'm often putting signicant chips at risk at a time when it just isn't worth it.

I'm still feeling a little lost on this and similar hands, but thanks to everyone for helping me try to think it through.

[WillMagic]

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I have really been struggling with AK lately in early rounds. I feel like I'm often putting signicant chips at risk at a time when it just isn't worth it.

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Methinks that is because you are too reluctant to push preflop with it. AK is not a hand that takes flops well. If you are playing AK in such a way that you are routinely seeing flops you almost certainly need to push it more often and you might need to fold it more often.

Will

[lorinda]

It was just a suggestion based on two posts. Your latter comment shows I was probably incorrect.

Personally I think you should push or fold preflop depending on what you think your opponent has. I'll take a coinflip here as the pot is probably large enough (Without ICMing it) and I'll probably push. A call doesn't do much other than invite your opponent to hit free cards on the occasions when he is behind.
You'll hit the flop 1/3rd of the time, and lose 1/2 your stack the rest of the time (Unless you're going to pull some kind of funky stop go if you really think he has a small pocket pair.... a read I'd find very hard to make here)
As a very rough rule of thumb, I don't like to call off more of my stack than the percentage of the time I will take down the pot..... the obvious exception being when I choose to go all in.


Lori

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It was just a suggestion based on two posts. Your latter comment shows I was probably incorrect.

Personally I think you should push or fold preflop depending on what you think your opponent has. I'll take a coinflip here as the pot is probably large enough (Without ICMing it) and I'll probably push. A call doesn't do much other than invite your opponent to hit free cards on the occasions when he is behind.
You'll hit the flop 1/3rd of the time, and lose 1/2 your stack the rest of the time (Unless you're going to pull some kind of funky stop go if you really think he has a small pocket pair.... a read I'd find very hard to make here)
As a very rough rule of thumb, I don't like to call off more of my stack than the percentage of the time I will take down the pot..... the obvious exception being when I choose to go all in.


Lori

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Thanks, Lori, for the great advice. I think I'm starting to "get it" here and am now in favor of pushing instead of calling, particularly at an $11 where villain's range is pretty wide.