Matt Matros article from Card Player: AK and Fold Equity

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_maga...amp;m_id=65565

opinions on this analysis?

[-Skeme-]

Very good article. I think I still have it bookmarked.

[Supern]

Do you think this applies to cash games though?
If you have 100bb and open raise is 4bb it seems you are risking alot by moving in.

AA and KK are going to call, but can we expect hands that we want to call to call? Especially from a big stack.

The article is about a small stack. But with deep stacks moving in seems like a bad move.

[c_strong]

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The article is about a small stack. But with deep stacks moving in seems like a bad move.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree - you can't push with AK with deep money. I'm inclined to think re-raising is still a good idea, provided that your flop c-bets are getting respect. However, not being able to push changes the maths considerably as you can't guarantee seeing all five cards.

[DoomSlice]

I don't remember seeing anything about pushing 100BB with AK against a 4BB raise. A healthy reraise to 12BB is probably in order, though.

[Mathemagician]

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I don't remember seeing anything about pushing 100BB with AK against a 4BB raise. A healthy reraise to 12BB is probably in order, though.

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Why would you choose 12BB here? Doesn't a reraise to 12BB price in pocket pairs to try to hit a set?

M

[DoomSlice]

Not unless you're planning on losing your stack every time you hit an A or K. Remember, they'll hit the flop a lot less than you'll hit, so you don't even need to hit your AK to get a fold most of the time.

[Isura]

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I don't remember seeing anything about pushing 100BB with AK against a 4BB raise. A healthy reraise to 12BB is probably in order, though.

[/ QUOTE ]
Why would you choose 12BB here? Doesn't a reraise to 12BB price in pocket pairs to try to hit a set?

M

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Not if you don't get stacked every time with top. You give people implied odds by playing poorly postflop.

[d_wrek]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you think this applies to cash games though?
If you have 100bb and open raise is 4bb it seems you are risking alot by moving in.

AA and KK are going to call, but can we expect hands that we want to call to call? Especially from a big stack.

The article is about a small stack. But with deep stacks moving in seems like a bad move.

[/ QUOTE ]

I asked him about this...here's some of his response (my questions/comments have the ">" marks in front):

Thanks for the email, and the compliment on the book. Sorry I took so long to respond.

>In your example, I have 15 big blinds in front of me,
>so moving in here makes sense. How would you handle
>the same situation if you and your opponent each have
>50 or 100 big blinds in front of you, as is often the
>case in a no-limit cash game?

Good question. Obviously you wouldn't move-in there, as that would be way too big an overbet. I still like to reraise with AK, for two reasons.
1) The more money I get in preflop, the more chance I have of getting to a showdown, hence seeing all five cards. 2) I want to reraise with AA and KK, but I like to just take flops with most other hands I'm going to play.
But I can't ONLY reraise with AA and KK or I'll be too predictable, so I like to add AK to the mix to keep my opponents guessing.

>When the stacks are deep, often I'll just call an
>early raise with AK.

I don't think that's a bad play, and I won't say that I NEVER do that. It's just not my usual style.

>Since we're not likely to get it
>all in pre-flop with that much dough in front of us,
>if the flop misses me, I'm in the same boat whether I
>call or re-raise pre-flop. Two-thirds of the time
>I'll miss, and I'll probably have to lay it down if my
>opponent bets. I don't get to see all 5 cards.

That's assuming your preflop reraise gets called. A big reason to reraise preflop is to put small/medium pairs to a decision. If you're comfortable just calling with AK and then mucking if you miss, then OK. I like to make it a little harder for my opponents to take the pot away from me when I have a hand as strong as AK.


He adds the following at the end of his response:

Small pairs are easier to play with deep stacks. Everything else is harder, especially AK. But I'm willing to take on some of the difficulty and play it aggressively.

[cbloom]

The right answer depends on the opponent, like everything in poker. With short stacks an allin raise is pretty much required. With deep stacks it becomes more important how they will respond and play various flops -

If your opponent is the type that won't fold 88 even if the flop has an A or K, you can just call and hit your A or K and still get paid. Continuation without an A or K is probably wrong.

If your opponent is likely to fold a lot of pairs, the raise is probably right. Continuation on the flop even without an A or K is probably right.

If your opponent's a rock, you might even fold AK (!!) as his raise utg must be AA, KK, QQ or AK, and you have no value against those hands.

etc...