The Calibre Of Ace-King...? (Suited or Unsuited)

[winky51]

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AK is a hand that is very powerful when you are first into the pot. It is also a good re-raising hand. However, there are many times in SNG's where it is proper to fold AK.

AK is a very tricky hand and must be played in different ways in relation to your stack size/feel for the table.

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Agreed. I prefer calling a raise when in position and reraising out of position. But this depends on the PF raiser.

If you reraise OOP the only hands calling you there have you beat already I think so flop play becomes easier (any pair). And if some donk calls with AQ all the better.

In position I feel you will be getting the odds to hit a pair vs most hands. Also hands like AQ, AJ, will pay you off. Consider MP2 raised 3x you cold call, all fold. You getting 3:5.5 considering the blinds. Now the flop comes with an A or K and the OOP MP2 raiser usually makes a continuation bet of 30-55% of the pot if he has a pair under. Well right there you are getting the price for the preflop call considering you hit a pair 1 in 3. I think more times than not you will face AQ, AJ than AA and KK also. The cold call also makes the other player wonder what you have? I feel more times than not players feel if you had AK you'd reraise preflop so they tend more to think you don't have it. A cold call in position players usually place you on a small to medium pair. This is from my experience in live tournaments. I am always asking questions like "what did you think I had?"

As for all ins. If I have 10,000 chips with blinds of 100/200 and joe shmoe raises my stack... go ahead and take it. Why should I risk my stack in that position. All in calls with AK really depend on who, why, where, when, and how much of your stack.

Am I wrong in my thinking?