AK is the Great Balancing Hand in No Limit Hold'em and I will show you how to play this great hand like and IDIOT like myself would be playing.

AK suited or unsuited is the strongest no-pair hand in No Limit Hold’em. It holds very good equity against a variety of hands if we can see all five cards. Against 22 to QQ the AK is 46%, up against KK is 30% and up against AA we have 8%. Therefore, AK can be played really strong as it performs well against almost every hand except AA and we hold a blocker to even that and cut the Aces combos in half.

A great majority of live No Limit Hold'em players even winning players play AK far too weakly. Most of them think the AK is a drawing hand, therefore they only call raises to hit the flop or fold after the flop if they missed. Playing AK this way guaranty the lowest earn possible for the hand. The lack of reciprocal edge by playing AK softly alone demonstrates why we should no play AK softly.

Bottom line is this: If we play AK in a defensive manner rather than offensive then our hand playing is basically really weak which breads an entirely weak overall game plan.

Why it is so important to play it strong? - Because is a only non pair hand that we can take a stand with. Meaning 3-betting, 4-betting and then be able to call a shove if in fact the villain is strong enough to shove on us. We can make life miserable for 99, TT, JJ, QQ with AK if they decide to 3bett our raises. We can 4bet heavy and be able to call a shove for 150 big blinds it makes us extremely tough to play against.

We have to understand thou, playing AK strongly requires very good post flop play as well. We’ll miss the flop quite often and will have to play the post flop with no pair very often, in fact a majority of the time. This is exactly why the weaker players tend to settle down and play the hand like a drawing hand. Fear of playing the post flop without a made hand is rampant among players who do not poses the post flop skills necessary to extract optimum profit from AK. Therefore, we have to decide if we want to play along side the sheep, so to speak, or to move ahead like a wolf. I prefer to be the wolf. How you play AK in routine live games depends enormously on the rages of your villains and typical game flow of your game.

Let’s do a few examples to show you what I mean by that:
Regular 2-5 game, 100bb effective, hero is a unknown to the villain but the hero does know that the villain is tourist pleasure player basically playing his own two cards. Non aggressive demeanor at the table and maybe I can call him just a soccer dad, so to speak ... haha
Hero opens 3bb to $15 UTG and the villain two seats to our left 3-bets us all-in 100bb to $500. What we do here? ..., Well, what’s his range? - I would say that his rage in the normal run-of-the-mill 2-5 game would be probably QQ+, mostly with just maybe few AK sprinkle in. We’re pounded by this range, we are out of position and this hand reeks of reverse implied odds. Therefore, I fold. This is probably considered sacrilegious by many to fold an AK preflop there is, but I can assure you that if you are not folding an AK some preflop you are leaking quite a bit.

Now, let’s take a look at another one:
2-5 game, 100bb effective. Hero is basically unknown at the table and however has seen a younger seemingly aggressive villain over play TT, JJ preflop by 3-bet them often. The hero opens to $20 in late middle position and the villain quick 3-bets to $60.
What is the hero do? .., Well, what is his rage? - I would say, here on average his range would be TT+, AK for sure and possible AQs maybe even AQo. Having said that I will 4bet to an amount that the villain is unable to flat and reevaluate after the flop. I’m gonna put him to a push fold decision. This amount I would imagine would be around $190. Placing this amount of pressure on the TT, JJ and QQ will many times produce folds as is plainly obvious to the villain that he has zero fold equity if he shoves against us. Many times this type of villain elects not to stack-up for 99, TT, JJ and even QQ or his AK which is a huge plus for us.

if it wasn´t by outdonked you guys would not be flaming it as much.
anyway, gotta get locked pretty soon.

Yes, I agree. The nuts and bolts of playing AK that is half of the income if not more it should be locked pretty soon because some clowns like Kelvis with the FoS title Pooh-Bah and 4617 posts on 2+2 running around loose insulting. Like Ask Kelvis anything you want thread, only he doesn't have idea how AK should be played thinking AK may be a drawing hand but he's a FoS specialist on calling me "an idiot" because I didn't asked his advice how I should handle my AK .. haha. I never meet that FoS professor of poker theory and I didn't even noticed him here on 2+2. Actually, he only started 4 posts on his own name in his entire poker 2+2 career. .., haha ... wtf?

Yes, that's a great idea to close my brilliant AK post. Yes, why don't you do that? .. Oh, better whay the mods don't delete my AK post? I really am sorry for posting it. I should not have write about the nuts and bolts anyway. Please delete the goddamned AK post.

Let's have like half sentence ******ed posts like above where people hiding behind the screen commenting like .. "yes agree" or "+" or "this" or "you are an idiot" or "Ummm yeah" .. haha .. that's a lot bank knowledge in those comments for a world poker forum.

More's the pity, youngster. More's the pity.

Never seen so much salt in my life.

Just me, but I think these long posts are reserved for people with posts in the thousands where people respect their opinion. I wouldn't write my own "brilliant" thoughts after my many hundred posts.

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Man genuinely knows what he's talking about

Yeah this is the same guy that posts a lot saying that all young people suck at poker. His opinion in almost all situations should be disregarded from what I've seen

this, pardner!

I agree with you about playing AK aggressively, always 3betting and never calling to play fit or fold. I also agree folding when we're up against a narrow range, but in your second example, I would probably jam for 100 BB's, maximize all FE and see 5 cards.

why is it going to get locked?

This is being extremely ignorant. So your saying, if a great winning pro decides to sign up to 2p2, his posts need to be ignored until he reaches 5K posts?

Before this gets locked...

I see no reason to lock this. It is a theory strat post. You may agree or disagree. You may not troll it, as trolling strat threads in LLSNL is not allowed.

Ofc not, but there's no compelling reason to think outdonked is. He seems more like a troll. If someone creates an account claiming to be Phil Ivey, how would you verify it?

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So... why didn't you just post the video you plagiarized and ask thoughts in response to it?

https://youtu.be/XnnQGRRIoEU

Really........
This thread is terrible......
Outdonked makes some decent points here about playing ak aggressively in some situations, and folding it to 3! In other situations...I also agree it is widely a handed played terribly by a huge proportion of the llsnl player pool....
It's a shame that this advice is mostly lost in a sea of irrelevance and largely nonsensical very niche situations....

Hero opens for 3x utg with ak......in a live cash game....? 5x minimum here.....
Villan shoves for 150bb..... We are expected to believe this is a competent player, who can't have worse than qq.... Even the worst players realise they need to bet smaller to obtain value.......
A more difficult problem would be hero 6x utg with ak,
Nit 3! To 16x otb......hero folds..... This is a much cleaner example.....
Equivalently: Hero 6x utg with ak, lag 3! To 16x otb..... Hero 4! To 55x......calls a shove.....

Exactly the same betting pattern but the table dynamic changes the way we play drastically.. . I think this is the point outdonked is trying to make here.....

Also, need to say the opening gambit.... Ak is a great balancing hand is just an atrocious misunderstanding of the concept of balance.....

I guess you skipped my post, but Outdonked didn't make any of these points. He plagiarized the late Bill Hubbard. He transcribed the text of this video word for word.

To your last point, I don't think he means balance in a "balanced range" sense, but more of a balance between good & bad players, or something to that effect...

I read this and Outdonked was making some sense and I was like, "what the hell is going on!?"

But now I see he plagiarized the whole thing.

New low, Outdonked. New low. Why isn't this guy banned already? Trolling is one thing but plagiarism??? Maybe it's the academic in me but plagiarism should not even be slightly tolerated.

Bill Hubbard used to post here as Ain't No Limit. RIP. Nice guy, I had a couple of email conversations with him a few years ago.

BTW, I think Bill did mean that AK is a great balancing hand in the sense of being able to balance your range. If your 3-bet/4bet range is QQ+,AK, you have both value and bluffs available to you on most flops. If your 3bet/4bet range is QQ+ only, you are going to have value issues on A high boards, and you never have bluffs on low boards. You're going to have issues on something like 768 double suited, but you're still able to balance pretty well on most flops/runouts.

You are an uneducated and have no idea what you are talking about.

first: definition of plagiarism is "infringe of copyrights" - Now, Bill has no copyright and his material. And in his book is the AK much more expended description for an entire chapter. So, if I read that one and tell to somebody about AK you want me to be banned. Like reading a book by Sklansky and the GAP concept and when I explained to some idiot how to call or not a raise from upfront I cannot say GAP but I have mention Sklansky's ..., You are FoS .., man..., Because GAP = Sklansky ..., You are not an academic .. but a FoS at the asylum like a supervisor ..

second: Bill's description about AK is known to all his students. I was one of his too here in Vegas many many years ago. If I memorized to the best of my ability and tell to you the uneducated players something about AK, you Mr. nobody and other just up and scream like lunatics that I should be banned. You and the guy above and another one the other day want me to be banned for you guys to have chance to shine on 2+2. But you and other dudes will never play and ride at the heights I am now.

Go ahead and delete my 2+2 account. Ask the management to have me banned. I don't care because I get no rewards and no knowledge by being or posting on 2+2. Even if I get banned I can still come into the forum and rean all I want.

So, go ahead and make a fool of yourself and all others .., wtf ..

Bro... you copied his speech word for word without even a shout-out. ****'s unseemly. You're still my dogg though, Outdonked & I think you're far from being banned, but humble up a bit. You don't need to prove anything to anyone.

@Outdonked

I know what plagiarism is, but you evidently don't. Here's dictionary.com's first definition:

"an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author:"

Did you have Bill Hubbard's permission? No? Did you credit the post to Bill Hubbard? No?? Did you even use quotation marks to imply it wasn't your work? No??? Did you in fact straight up copy his speech and present it as your own, in the first person, word for word, the only difference being you inserted numerous spelling and grammatical errors? Yes you did. I don't care if there's no copyright. Passing off someone else's work as your own is plagiarism. It's bad enough plagiarizing when you have something to gain, like passing a course, but doing it just to gain props on a forum? That's just shameful.

Keep implying I'm a liar, calling me uneducated, FoS, etc. From you it's high praise, and it doesn't change you ripped a video and posted it as if it's your own. And I'm not reporting your post, because for the moment I find your ramblings vaguely amusing, but if you get banned it's nobody's fault but yours.

plagiarizing a dead man's strat and justifying it by saying he doesnt have a copyright?? LOL. outdonked you are scum.

lol this post keeps getting better and better

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What I have learned from 2+2 is that anybody that does something that is somewhat unethical is scum

I did not copy and I was unaware of that video untill some dude post it. I have Bill's manual from years and years ago when he coach player and I was one of them like maybe 10 years ago. I still have his coaching manual and in that manual he's got an entire chapter over 30 pages of all possible scenarios I may be with my AK. The introduction to the AK chapter is in essence what I memorized years and years ago as a general plan. I know all other details too, of course. But to be accused by some loser clown that plays his little AK as a drawing hand ..., hahaha..., that I plagiarized Bill is beyond gross, disgusting, revolting and vomiting. Like asylum running on the loose.

You know, I get no benefit for posting because there's nothing I encounter at the tables and learned from Bill and some other heavy hitters that anyone else can improve upon my play. Nothing of substance gets debated around here that impresses me, so to speak. Most post are one sentence long and FoS. Like: passive play, trying to draw, checking, call+call and folding OTT or OTR after 40%+ of eff got in and FoS like that.

The most 12-15 alive players today here in Vegas still has Bill's manual. At the most, maybe less. That book is the essence of the hard hitting plays at the tables not the BS floating around at Amazon. ..., hahaha..., And the AK chapter is the jewel of them all with over 30 pages of goddamned heavy strategy that many players will think is magic when see it in action. And, it is.

PS: And as a final note to this subject.
If I see an honest player here on 2+2 that really is smart but need some help I will help him very briefly.(and if they get me banned .. oh, well ..., wtf? .. I don't care) But remember, I always know when people lie to me or try to con me into the corner. Always. That's why I'm able to win at NL for so many many years.

Somewhat unethical. Hmm. Let me walk you through this.

Outdonked makes a theoretical post about how to play AK. He gets trolled because he's a troll, and in his second post defends what he calls "my brilliant AK post" and sarcastically says "I should not have write about the nuts and bolts anyway."

All this conveys the idea that this is his strategy. But wait, it's word-for-word ripped from Bill Hubbard. Outdonked doesn't just post someone else's thoughts, he takes credit for this deceased players' thoughts as "my brilliant AK post".

When accused, accurately, of plagiarizing the post, he then calls me uneducated, FoS, and implies or says I'm both a liar and have no idea what I'm talking about, as well as something indecipherable about working at an asylum. He makes a ridiculous analogy to explaining Sklansky's GAP concept as defense that what he did is not plagiarism instead of owning up to it.

And all of this isn't coming from some new poster who doesn't know the forum rules. This is from a troll who's gotten numerous threads locked, who repeatedly insults anyone who disagrees with him, and in general, acts like a condescending and cranky old man.

I don't know if he's scum but he consistently acts with disrespect towards basically every person here, and is fundamentally dishonest to boot. Call it what you will but there's no defending his antics.

And there's no ethical difference between transcribing a video as your own thoughts and copying a manual as your own thoughts and memorizing a manual and presenting it as your own thoughts, though the last scenario is least believable.