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Message: [QUOTE="amitmanchanda, post: 6912682, member: 220526"] Background: I recently saw a hand of high-stakes poker including Tom Dwan where someone lost 1.5 Million USD with AK. That made me think, that despite all the information available on the net and coaching, people are still overplaying AK and made me write on this. This article is about how to play AK when you have more than 20 blinds, anything less than, is a fair shove until and unless you are on the bubble (we will discuss this in another article) Detail: AK suited or non-suited is one of the Top 10 hands in any poker book or chart and very often, including me, people usually overplayed it. Pre-flop is certainly a hand with which you can open from any position, in fact, 3 bet from middle or late positions too. However, it’s the 4-bet which will bring you trouble more often than you think. 1.5 million pot which I mentioned above is the hand where the loser 4 bet from button. I personally, based on my experience, will not do it because it will lay a foundation for big loss on the next betting rounds. Consider this, if you open, someone 3 bet you, what are the possible hands you will be ahead of AQ, AJ and consider how many hands he may be ahead of you, AA, KK at least and flipping with QQ, JJ, 10 in fact any pocket pair, opponent will have 2-3% edge. So, there are only 2 hands where you will be genuinely ahead, 2 hands where you will be well behind, and there will be 10 hands where you will be flipping with a slight disadvantage. So, the question is do you want to flip? I know, I don’t! Poker is about finding certainty out of all uncertainty, so my idea is to hit the flop first then look for value because on a rainbow flop if you don’t hit, you just have an Ace high. Is it worth risking your tournament life or your whole stack with Ace high? I guess not. However, if you 4 bet and already made a pot super heavy, you will tend to 3-barrel and lose more often. Post Flop: you hit the flop: early positions, if you hit the flop, 1-3 players behind and dry flop, you can check to trap or bet, if more than 1-3 players definitely raise to shorten the field, you don’t people to catch two pairs or set. Late positions, if you hit the flop, raise or re-raise to hold the aggressive advantage. You don’t hit flop: Early position or late position, check call if it’s less than 40% pot size bet, if more than 40%-fold because Ace High is not worth risking your stack. Consider the pot size here, if you had ballooned the pot with 4 bet pre-flop, it would have been extremely difficult for you to let go of the pot here. Turn: if you are still in the pot, and still haven’t hit anything, check fold. If you are on a Broadway or flush draw check your pot odds and play accordingly. River: if you hit your ace or king, and the other player had been doing pot control bets on flop and turn, you might have the best hand but I will still not recommend a re-raise here as the other player will fold if he can’t bet ace or king or will re-raise as he was waiting for you to catch your card so he can get max value for his/her two pairs or set. Conclusion: AK will turn out to be Ace high by the end at the river more often than you expect and far less likely to be a winner. Don’t play big slick like pocket rockets or cowboys with more than 20 blinds in your stacks and we all know even they are not immune to loss. [/QUOTE]

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