capping with AK out of position BTF

[nykenny]

What is the reason to to cap with AK(s) out of position against 1, 2 or more opponents, before the flop?

I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on each of these situations, thanks in advance.

- Kenny

[The Truth]

For value. If the raisers are tight, and you dont think you have equity, dont cap.

However, even if 1 of the 2 players are weak its an easy cap.
You could make a better argument for not capping this heads up than 3 handed, but even heads up, you usually have equity over the other guys range.

I also like being in control when im OOP. It makes it smoother.

[fearme]

ak is good

[InfernoLL]

This is certainly player dependent, but many players play in such a way that who will have an equity advantage before the flop with AK. There was a recent thread where someone folded AK pf to an EP raise and reraise from tight players. Everyone agreed that it was a good fold. I often just call the 3 bet from the blinds or EP if I feel the reraiser probably has a narrow range.

[aflaba]

The only reason I can come up with is:

percent of times you'll win > 1/(number of players)

... for value

[Nightwish]

[ QUOTE ]
What is the reason to to cap with AK(s) out of position against 1, 2 or more opponents, before the flop?

I'd like to hear everyone's opinion on each of these situations, thanks in advance.

- Kenny

[/ QUOTE ]
The other replies are right in that it's mostly for value. But I would do this even heads up where it's no longer so clear that it's for value. The other two big reasons are because it makes the hand easier to play postflop and for deception purposes. That is, you don't want people to think that your preflop cap in the blinds always means AA/KK/QQ/JJ. You want them to have some doubt as to what you have. A side effect of this is that when you do have AA/KK/QQ/JJ, you'll make more money with those hands.

[nykenny]

[ QUOTE ]
This is certainly player dependent, but many players play in such a way that who will have an equity advantage before the flop with AK. There was a recent thread where someone folded AK pf to an EP raise and reraise from tight players. Everyone agreed that it was a good fold. I often just call the 3 bet from the blinds or EP if I feel the reraiser probably has a narrow range.

[/ QUOTE ]

in the headsup situation,

many times when I open raise with AK in EP the 3 better has me beat most of the time, has me tied a small percentage of times, and very rarely is dominated by me.

about at least 1/2 of the time, when I open in MP, the 3 better has me beat.

pretty sure at least 1/5 of the time when I open in LP and get reraised, he has me beat; and 2/5 of the time i have him beat but not dominated; and 2/5 of the time i have him dominated.

with more players,

especially 3 opponents, i guess capping for value would be right, most likely. but when the # of opponents go higher than that, some believe AK goes down in value, but that's not the purpose of this discussion.

So,

given my experience thus far, i am quite not sure if it's the best thing to cap with 1, 2, or even 3 opponents, out of position.

can anyone give sum up these situations i listed above and make sense for me one way or another?

thanks very very much,

- Kenny