A play with Ace-King offsuit

[nepenthe]

Party 3/6 game. Pretty typical opponents all around. Rather loose and passive table. I'm in the SB with K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. There are 4 limpers to me. I complete. BB checks. 6 opponents.

Flop comes: K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Checked to LMP who bets out. Folded to me and I call. Everyone else folds.

Turn:3 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Checked to LMP who bets. I call.

River: 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

I bet intending to call a raise.

[Entity]

I don't like the preflop play much, since you're going to have to earn 2-3 extra BB in general (when you hit) to make up for it, which is a bit of a deficit.

Given your preflop complete, I like your postflop line.

Rob

[laja]

I would definately raise this preflop, make them pay for limping in with bad hands. You will win more than your fair share. Then proceed to play it aggressively past that

[Entity]

Mind sharing your thinking w/the preflop complete? I know I've seen John Feeney discuss this in the past in a thread here, and he mentioned that it could be a good idea to limp or just knock with AK in the BB occasionally, but most disagreed. What was your reasoning for it here?

Rob

[nepenthe]

Well, I love raising AKo preflop as much as the next guy. I also hate being completely out of position probably more than the next guy. This time around, the hate overcame the love. FWIW, I would raise AKs in this spot 100% of the time, but with said offsuit, I tend to mix it up a bit. Neither preflop play with AKo in this precise situation is a clear favorite over the other for me.

I have indeed read the various threads involving AKo in which Mr. Feeney was involved, and would like to think that any preflop deficits suffered by doing what I did can be salvaged by outplaying my opponents postflop with a premium holding, with the value of deception added in for good measure. By outplaying, I obviously mean maximizing potential earned bets, maximizing saved bets, as well as maximizing my winning chances (none of which is mutually exclusive to each other), through information gathered postflop which is likely to be enhanced by the latent power of my holding in conjunction with the board.

[Joe Tall]

Why give up so much preflop?

Peace,
Joe Tall

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I would raise AKs in this spot 100% of the time, but with said offsuit, I tend to mix it up a bit.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is 3/6 hold'em. A.K.A. Small stakes. Last I heard, you don't need to mix it up at small stakes. The bulbs at the other end of the table are simply not glowing that brightly.

[BottlesOf]

I'd say pretty lousy.

raise preflop

[jclin]

[ QUOTE ]
This is 3/6 hold'em. A.K.A. Small stakes. Last I heard, you don't need to mix it up at small stakes. The bulbs at the other end of the table are simply not glowing that brightly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto. In addition, I don't think there is much difference b/t AKs v. AKo. Yet, being first position is very sucky. I prefer raise vs. call, but call is OK.

[Stu Pidasso]

Having kept the pot small I think you should check raise the flop.

Stu