Big slick against the blinds.

[Stealthy]

How do you play AK when it misses the flop which is, lets face it, most of the time. I keep losing money with this hand more than any other. I will typically be in mid or late poistion and raise and it gets folded to the blinds where 1 or both will call. Because of often being in late poistion (I don't seem to have the same trouble from EP) my raise is not respected and could be seen as a blind steal. Now when the flop comes up rags and it gets checked to me and I bet I always seem to get played back at. Should I lay down immediately to a re-raise or do I take a turn card?

Of course a lot of the time the blind player may also have nothing and may just be trying to protect their blind. But is it safer to assume that they have hit part of the board and get out cheaply or is it ever correct to call them down?

I had a guy earlier today where I was in the SB with AKo and he was in the BB. The table is tight and it gets folded around to the blinds and I raise and am called. He bets a ragged flop and I raise, he re-raises and I call. He bets the turn and river and I call him down only to find that he has hit a runner runner straight. He was raising and re-raising on the flop with nothing more than 3 non-consequative cards to a low straight.

The above example is not ordinary I know and I could easily have been against a made hand on the flop, and yes I went too far with my unimproved pocket cards, I accept that.

But how do other posters on here play big slick against 1 or 2 opponents when it misses the flop? In a multi-way pot it is easy because someone will have a hand and you can let it go quite cheaply but heads up and 3 way it gives me so much grief. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Nick C]

There are a lot of variables, so I don't think your questions are that easy to answer. But in the Party 2/4 games I play, I don't get too stubborn when I miss and get played back at (I don't discount my outs as much as usual, though), largely because it doesn't happen all that often. What happens instead is my opponent(s) fold or I get called down by bottom pair or middle pair or a small pocket pair. If I thought people were making plays against me, I'd start calling down more when I got played back at.

Part of the reason I don't get too persistent in the face of resistance when I miss is that I know I'm not going to get paid off too well if I flop an ace or king (unless my opponent called preflop with a dominated hand). I know this in part because on those occasions when I make a steal-raise with something like a 54s or QTo, a flop bet will frequently take the pot for me when an ace or king is on the board.