"Slowplaying" Ace King

[jacketz14]

Early in a tournament, when all players have deep chip stacks is it a good idea to simply call a raise with ace king and hope that you can hit a flop where your opponent is badly outkicked?

[XXXNoahXXX]

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I think its funny that almost back to back there are posts of a player folding AK to a preflop raise and asking whether or not to "slowplay it" or reraise. It all depends on the size of the bet. AK works best versuses limited players, so if his raise isn't enough to isolate and your reraise will push a couple players out without inducing a push by the original raiser than it might be correct. If the original raise is sufficient to limit the amount of players seeing the flop than you should probably just call. Of course things like reads on players, stack sizes, how deep in the tournament, and the size of the original bet all must be considered. With AK, it isn't terribly wrong to fold, call, or raise depending on the aforementioned circumstances.

[jacketz14]

What I am thinking of is the possible scenario where flop comes ace with 2 rags and you win a nice pot off of ace jack or ace queen.

[XXXNoahXXX]

Right, that would be an optimal flop with AK, but the thing about getting it to limited players is when the flop comes AKT, u dont want some clown that hung around with JQ knocking you down and out. Early in a tourney you will get weaker A hands to come along anyways, so don't be afraid to push a bit if the original raise isnt big enough.

[Lloyd]

I NEVER slowplay AK against multiple opponents. AK is a hand that plays best heads up so I will raise 100% of the time. I occasionally (to mix up my play) just call when it looks like it will be heads up. Harrington refers to this as lowering his variance.