Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicagodude
OK but AK so often whiffs on the flops I feel like they aren't as valuable as JJ or 10s. Am i wrong about that? Some charts have AKs above JJ and 10s but I see them lose so often. I will do that in the future though.
You're looking at AK from the wrong perspective
You got to play AK not like a drawing hand but like a power monster. If you need to draw you will get a TP by the river 50% of the times.
AK suited or unsuited is the strongest no-pair hand in No Limit Hold’em. It dominates over all non paired hands and has good equity against a variety of hands if we can see all five cards. AK vs. 22 to QQ 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 the 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 88, 99, TT, JJ, QQ and AK and dominate all other hands with our AK if they decide to 3bett our raises. We can 4bet heavy and be able to call a shove for 100 to 150 big blinds, and this makes us extremely tough to play against.
It must be a hell to play against our AK. That's the way you should look at your AK.
Last edited by outdonked; 08-05-2017 at 04:27 PM.