I hate big slick...

Ya know, I always thought AK was a great starting hand and that you were supposed to play it aggressively. But after getting spanked time after time I'm of the opinion that big slick sucks. Any more when I look down and see AK in the pocket, I basically feel like I'm limping into the pot with mediocre cards.

Maybe I thought too highly of AK to begin with? How do you guys play the big slick pre and post flop??

You have to raise with it pre-flop to get the junk hands to fold. If you don't hit your flop play cautious or even fold after putting out a feeler bet after the flop. Its all in the betting and reading the other players post flop. Don't get crazy with it unless you have the nuts.

AK is easy to play wrong. I see people play it like it's the nuts all the time. It is a VERY strong starting hand and here is why. 70% of the time you are going to miss the flop with your starting cards. If you have only one opponent in the hand against you, there is a 70% chance they missed the flop. And unless they have a pocket pair, then you are ahead in the hand. When you do hit the flop with either card, you have top pair, top kicker, which is a pretty good hand to have. It's a slight dog to any pocket pair and is dominated only by two hands, AA and KK.

Because it is such a strong starting hand, it is often played to the river when the board misses it completely. And the holder will frequently bet it hard all the way to the river. This is like playing aces hard after a really bad board comes out. Suppose you have AA in the pocket and the turn brings four spades to the board and you don't have the ace of spades. Are you going to call an all in bet? Are you going to call any bet? Nope, that's the time to dump those aces. You started the hand way ahead of everyone, but you are way behind now and no chance of catching up. Same thing with AK, every now and then you'll start the hand behind, but most of the time you start the hand ahead of everyone else when you have this hand. So when the board doesn't improve, and other people seem to think the board helped them, do you continue to play the hand like it's bullet proof? Many people do, and that's when it becomes a bad hand. Any hand can be tossed, it's knowing that it needs to be tossed and doing that which will make you money in poker. Maybe you have AK and the flop comes AJx. Well you may have just gotten outdrawn. Remember, you only have on pair. Most pots are won with two pair or better if seen all the way to the river.

Played right, AK can be a great hand. But it isn't going to win every time, and the way you make money with it is by tossing it when it doesn't connect.

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Hey brown i think I know where ya coming from here. Both Ref and Grum have giving you very sound advice. I think you feel the way you do about "AK" is becuase of the preflop play. AK can be a very difficult hand to play preflop. But Ref's advice is correct. You must bet with it and be prepared to dump it if it doesnt improve. But dont go overboard with the betting, after all, its not a made hand. Its not even a pair yet. Its simply a high card Ace if it doesnt improve. Someones pair of deuces has you covered unless you hit something.

Don't be ready to call someones all-in because you have AK. In fact with AK you should be forcing the action preflop not calling with it. Granted there are times later in the game where you'll want to play AK more aggressively and you will be calling All-in's. But to start out, in the early goings of the game just play them like its any other 2 connected cards and stay away from calling All-in's with them. Same goes for AQ,AJ, & A-10.

Do you have any hand history examples to show how you are playing pre and post flop? That would help us give you our two cents on how you are playing AK.

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The part about limping in may give a clue as to the root of the problem. AK is a raising hand when you're first to bet, and depending on the styles of the opponents, often worth raising against one or more limpers. Against some opponents, it's also worth a re-raise. Just limping in will disguise your hand when you hit, but as noted, you won't hit most of the time.

It todays of junk players that don't fold to raises you should consider limping it more often. I often just play it like a drawing hand and do the hit or fold with it whether I limped it or raised it. It just doesn't do that well against today's players.

In my last 1010 fixed limit ring games I've had AKs or AKo 11 times and during that time it has held up 81.82% of the time. It's won me $24.50 (at $0.50/$1) for an average of $2.23 each time I get it!

Everytime I've had it I've raised.

AK rocks!

*PS - I suck with AK in tournies though!!

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The views of Mattastic do not necessarily reflect the views of THF

You dont hate big slick. You just hate losing with big slick. Its like people who say they hate being dealt AA. Nobody hates being dealt AA, they just hate losing with them because A) they misplayed the hand or B) their opponent sucked out on them.

Going back to AK. AK is a very powerful hand preflop because it has most of the other hands dominated. After the flop is a bit different, depending on how many players are in the hand with you, its one of those "I need to hit on the flop to continue playing" hands.

One of the problems is that AK is sometimes hard to let go off. Its not like getting dealt QQ and a K flops, you can throw QQ away in a heartbeat. However, say 7 10 4 flopped and someone bet, its a bit harder to throw away AK. Weaker players will probably call down to the river, hoping to hit an A or K and when they dont they lose a lot of money. Thus, resulting in them hating AK.

my in a nutshell guide for playing AK

early: Open up with AK. on a garbage flop, bet out. If you're called, you're probably beat and if you dont hit on the turn, I dont see the need to bet out any more. If the flop is a scare flop showing a J or a Q or a 10, be wearing of betting out. Any player couldve easily called with AJ AQ KJ, etc. I would put out a feeler bet, but be ready to fold if it gets reraised.

middle: Raise if no-one has oppened up. Reraise if someone has. Fold to a Re-re-raise and play the flop as you would in early position.

Late: Raise big if noone has opened up to isolate. Re-raise big to isolate. You're in position now, so you play should be based on your opponents action and reaction to the board, rather than on the board itself.