AK is the worst starting hand in poker.

[Gronk]

Maybe that's not true but it's definitely the biggest hole in my game. I just can't seem to make money with this hand and I need some help.

Let's say I get dealt AKo in early position and raise to 4x the big blind...or 8x. A decent sized raise. Get one or two cold callers. It's an ace high uncoordinated flop. Something like ace 7 4. You bet big and they come over the top, now what? Fold? Wasn't that the flop you wanted? I don't feel like it's a strong enough hand to play back at them and every time I do I seem to lose my stack to aces up or a set. And if they cold called your preflop raise, maybe they too have ace king and their raise is now pushing you out of a split pot.

What if you raise preflop and the flop misses you? No aces or kings. Those cold callers could easily have a pocket pair. If you bet into them they'll either just call or play back at you. If you don't bet into them surely they'll bet and you'll have to decide whether 6 outs to a non-nut hand are worth the call to you.

I need help because I can't think of a good reason to play this hand. I lose more money with it than anything else. Unless it's suited and I flop a flush draw or I flop aces up or better, I fold for the minimum bet now and feel damn good when I do it. I've actually started folding it outright preflop if it's not suited and I haven't regretted it yet.

Can anyone tell me what I'm losing by folding this hand preflop? I'm tired of playing a hand that seems designed to win a small pot or lose a huge one, with the losing happening more often in my recent experience. I know this sounded kind of grumpy and I apologize but as far as I'm concerned right now it's garbage and not with the big blinds.

[illmatic]

Wow, please don't fold AK anymore!

I understand your frustration though. AK is a very important hand in hold em, because it's the most common big hand you'll get, and you can earn a lot of money with it, or lose a lot.

Playing AK depends hugely on the texture of the game you're in. I'll mainly address loose NL play, because I think that's the game you're in. In tight games, you play it a whole lot differently. AK in tight games if you raise preflop will limit the field to hands that you have crushed (many), or hands that crush you (AA or KK). So you're in good shape usually by raising preflop.

In loose NL play, I generally will not raise with AK up front. If you're facing a small raise early, I usually just call. Your other option is to re-raise all-in, but the overlay is not there with a small raise if you get called. So I call and see if I get my A or K, you have position on the raiser.

If you're facing a big raise early, you might consider folding if it's a player with good values. Or, you reraise all-in if you might take down the pot. Only AA or KK beats you by much now and the overlay is there to compensate when you're beat a little. In loose games it's not reasonable to think no one will call you though, so I don't do that too often.

This should help with your first scenario, playing AK out of position. I usually don't raise with it out of position in a loose game.

What happens if you got AK early limped and then catch?... Bet! But in loose games, TPTK is a small pot winning hand. You make your money against the other A's with lower kickers. I bet the pot, if you get called then you are probably up against the other ace and you can bet decently the whole way. If you get raised, you are being told that TPTK is no good anymore. Play accordingly, and this may mean fold. Don't put a lot of money in the pot with TPTK in a loose game.

If you have AK and miss -- you have to fold to any decent bet. If you don't raise with AK in EP, it won't cost you much.

Late position, I almost always raise with AK. This will usually A) buy you the button. B) Let you take a free card if you don't hit the flop, or bet if you think the opponents are foldeable. In loose games with lots of callers of your raise who won't fold bottom pair, you may have to just take the free card, even though that pretty much gives away your hand.

Preflop, if you raise and get reraised, I will generally fold AK. I think it's a reraising hand, not a reraise calling hand.

later,
illmatic

[Lexander]

I too have had my struggles at times with this hand.

My question to you is this:

What do you do when you get dealt AQo?

The only reason I ask is that AQo is a weaker hand than AKo but you didn't complain about it. When A72 hits the flop, your AQo is in worse position than your AKo would be. How do you handle AQo? More importantly, are you getting positive EV with AQo in this situation?

A lot of players have problems with AK solely because they have been told this hand is a Top Ten hand and should have positive EV. But if you consider it, AKo is simply the best non-paired, non-suited hand you can get dealt. It doesn't magically win pots. Like all non-paired hands, it generally needs help from the flop. You have to be willing to dump it in a hurry if things go wrong.

I once made a somewhat silly post arguing that for most beginning players AA is a negative expectation hand. I happened to be on a terrible streak with the hand and losing with it caused a serious case of tilt. And I will admit to having taken a good bit of money from people overplaying AA in NL.

But I was mostly wrong when I made that statement. AA for me, at that time, was a hand that caused tilt. So I was losing money playing it. I was also getting really unlucky (I have had nothing even close to that early streak since).

AK is a hand that I struggle with a bit myself (it is still strongly positive EV for me). I struggle with it only because it is so easy to forget that by itself it is just another HE hand in need of a little help. What makes it so wonderfully powerful is that if the flop is K72 or A72 you are in good shape against all but a few specific hands. And I made a real killing the other day when the flop came down QJT. Your real power is that you are way ahead of anybody playing a weaker kicker that hasn't hit.

Let me put it this way. If you can't find a reason to play AKo, then you can't find a reason to play AQo, KQo, or AJo, or a myriad of weaker hands that you probably do play and handle just fine. As with any other hand in HE, the strength of the hand is purely relative.

- Lex

[gliam]

I have been playing NL for about 8 months, I am not the best, but I do pretty well. I play party $50NL mostly, and I make pretty good money long term. A lot of 2+2ers could answer this better but here is my advice:

In the beginning AK was a difficult hand for me, Now my EV with it runs pretty high, its one of my best hands, just behind AA-JJ.

With AKo, if I am in EP I limp, MP or LP I usually raise, about 5x the blind, but that’s just my standard raise. I would suggest you pick a number that gets the number or callers you want to see on average. I like no more than two callers, no less than 1, 3 is ok, 4 is too many. Heads up or 3-way is ideal. I limp in EP because AKo is tougher to play out of position than a pair.

If I am in position, I will re-raise an EP raise, more for information than anything else. Its safe to muck if the original raiser comes over the top PF, unless you have a good read.

If the flop hits me I bet the pot, or something like it. If someone comes over top of me then, I fold 80% of the time. Looking through my hand histories, I found where I lose the most money with AK, is when I get out-flopped.

If I miss I am often done with the hand (about 50% of the time I make the pot bet anyway, this is more due to my table image than anything else, If I raise PF, 80% of the time I lead the betting post-flop, any observant player will put me on a big pair, because my PF raising standards are very tight, If I take the pot then, good, if not, I’m done with the hand)

If I hit an A or K, and I bet and get more than one caller, I play it carefully, wary of a trap. But if I have I have a decent read, I usually bet big on the turn to chase out anyone who is feeling nifty with their AQ or KQ as is so often the case on party.

For what its worth,
gliam

[crockpot]

i'm not a big fan of the cloutier/mcevoy pot-limit and no-limit book, but the words "A-K is a piece of cheese to raise with up front" are easily the most valuable info in there.

raising to 8xBB with AK is ridiculous, especially in early position. remember, your goal with this hand is to win money from top pair with a worse kicker, and you've pretty much run all those hands out of the pot.

[C M Burns]

Doyle Brunson would disagree with you at least from his book, he says he'd preffer it to AA or KK, mainly b/c you can get away from it easier.
I do have to either agree or sympathise with you, especially recently i've had big trouble with AK in nl, mainly sng's. it seems someone always has trips or 2p when i get an A or K flop. the worst is when they flop a set and just call and there is like a flush draw, so then I think they are drawing and I'm in big trouble.
Anyhow from reading DB's book, the games he describes are much tighter and the style he describes of being very aggresive doesn't work as well when people are losser and willing to gamble, as is the case in most online nl. But AK is one of the top 3-4 hands statistically so you would think it would be something you should figure out how to play. I don't have all the answers and am no expert, but I think raising PF, raising on the flop, but giving up if rr and being very carfule if called is the basic way to play and seems make sense the key being giving up and careful. The thing with online is sometimes you could get an AQ or even AJ to call u, so you feel bad giving it up or playing softly and letting him draw to a crappy flush, but then sometimes he will have trips and you will feel like an idiot.

I also think that it is a better hand to play when your stack is not to big, that way if you raise pf, you can go all in w/ and A or K, most of the time you will have the best hand, and if you have an amount that makes this all in reasonable then this seems like a good move, if you have a huge stack then i think it can be very dangerous. So thats my 2C, but i do sympathise with you that AK can be a troubling hand.

[Gronk]

Thank you all for your responses. I put away the tissues and started playing AK again following a lot of the advice here. Also went back and gave the super system section on AK a read and reread a lot of the reuben/ciaffone book. Haven't taken a big loss with it since because I've been much more careful about how hard I push with it. Thanks again.

[Ray Zee]

hey nobody relates it to their stack size. how can you even comtemplate how it should be played or what to do with it after the flop. either you all left it out to make it simple to talk about or dont understand something here.
maybe thats why many lose moeny with the hand instead of finding it the big winner that it is.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I must agree, stack size means more than anything else with AK. Finding ways to make it a winner involves ways to win the pot without seeing a flop too. AK is discussed in TPFAP in detail. Much of this is applicable to ring games too. Also, knowing how to TEMPER DS's advice with reason helps a lot. People lose so much with AK because they don't think top pair top kicker can be beat in a no limit game. They find out different when their stack goes bye-bye tho.

al

[dowlinga]

At the risk of admitting a little ignorance, what is TPFAP??