Had a hand that came up earlier this week I'm not sure the right line.

I'm on the BB in $1/$2 NLH. New-ish to the table.

I was dealt AKo. There were 5 limpers before it came to me. I would normally raise AK, but with 5 limpers and AK being a drawing hand I decided on a check back to see the flop.

Is it better to raise AKo here? What about AK Suited?

Thanks!

wtf does "AK being a drawing hand" mean? which range of hands is it drawing against?

what hand isn't a "drawing hand" by that definition? by "drawing" you mean that some boards favor it over others vs. the villain's range, and that it has little/no showdown value without hitting the board hard? think it through

anyway.. to be more direct.. yes, its better to raise AK

I understand OP's issue here. We are new so we don't have a read on the players. If we raise small, we just bloated a pot w/ probably 3-5 opponents OOP that will miss the flop more than half the time. Not a good spot.

If we raise big and get heads up, we bloated the pot vs. an unknown range OOP that will miss the flop more than half the time. If we had reads on opponents it makes it easier.

Saw a couple of guys stack off 100BB+ with AK hitting TPTK yesterday, but here goes...

With 5 limpers, I think a raise is in order. Not small, probably $20 will do the trick.

Early limpers with big hands will re-raise, not wanting to go with 6 to the flop. Early limpers with anything but a big hand should fold with limpers behind yet to act on the raise.

Limpers who came along late, likely don't have big hands, as they would be more likely to raise to avoid that big 6 way flop.

I expect to take a flop vs one V at most. More often than not, I'm either c-betting a wet flop, or delayed c-betting a dry one. If V calls or raises, I'll have to re-evaluate.

What kinds of hand are you limping early? Late after multiple limpers? How many of those hands would you call with after a substantial raise from the BB?

Make it $18 and play some poker.

I had that exact scenario yesterday in my 2/5 game. 5 limpers. I had AK in the BB and I raised to $40. That's 8BBs. You want to be HU (or just take it down preflop)

In a 1/2 game I would make it $20-25.

Forget about that “drawing hand” nonsense. Your hand has a massive equity advantage right now and you will also be out of position for the rest of the hand if you Check your option. You need to raise so that you either take the pot down immediately and avoid playing OOP against 5 limpets with a ROI Type game or force them to make a larger mistake by l/cing with far inferior holdings.

I cannot stress this enough: checking your option in this situation is essentially giving up on the hand. FWIW, I’m definitely on the nitty side and I raise as lightly as Qj, KJ and AT in this scenario:

I don’t about a massive equity edge against 5 limpers (you have about 8% on them preflop given around a 60% range for each - 13% against 100% ranges - plus you are OOP) .... that said this is a raise to $24, possibly a little more up to $30. If the game is super passive I could see a slightly smaller raise.

Fair enough, I’m on mobile and didn’t run the numbers on PkrCruncher. I think we can both agree that heros hand is most likely best and needs to raise so as not to play this multiway oop. Appreciate you clarifying the numbers though.

Need stack sizes and tendencies to give an educated answer as there will some situations where flatting is best and others where raising is best.

I want to get this heads up or take it down pre. $30. By limping you give those pesky setminers good price to flop bottom set when you have top pair. Do they still want to setmine for $30? Nope. F*ck 'em. V's with dominated As or Ks will also make a big mistake against you if they call.

Plus, when you do improve (which by the river will be about half the time), you will likely have the best hand and you have built a bigger pot. If you miss, you can always c-bet.

This a bunch.

My answer above is assuming normal 1-2 game where stacks are 50-100bb’s