[chaosuk]

Would you say it accomplishes nothing if foe had JJ rather than 10-10? Whether it's the right play or not is debatable, but to say it accomplishes nothing is senseless.
I've grown to like it more.

Much was suggested of how foe/shneids might have played A k spade this way, but hero from foe's perspective could have played this hand exactly the same way - much more likely than KK.It puts 10-10 in a tough spot if he bets the turn having missed the ten and is raised. Potentially playing the Aks this way is probably what gives KK the license to get away from the 3 bet without too much fear of being outplayed with say JJs.

In some conditions check-raising with KK no spade makes more sense than checkraising with it if you'd reckon villain could fold say 10-10s (for a rag turn card) - which may not occur if he has a tricky image - you'd not want to lose the 10-10s to a cr if you had KKs. Of course if he never reckon to shift 10-10s then it's a good play.

There's plenty of mileage in the the c-r imo, particularly if you'd reckon the risk of a creative play to be low.