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I think I may be overplaying AK but i'm not sure. In the a recent article in Poker Pro Magazine called "When to race" by David Apostolico he gives the following situation where AK is a easy laydown.

MTT (he doesn't state buyin), 65 players left, 45 cash, your fourth in chips with 24,000, blinds 400-800 with avg stack 7,000. New table, on the button, UTG moves allin for 14,000 and you have A-K.



His reply "This is a very easy fold in my opinion, I am most likely against a mid-pair hand or up against a hand like A-Q but i'm not really to bet on it. I am in excellent shape and there is no reason to be taking a stab in the dark here just to get in a race. I did fold here" He also states he would call if it was like a 6,000 UTG shove (still have plenty of chips), or if he only had like 6,000 chips (need to gamble)


so what do you think? i've faced this situations many times and I don't know what to think, but i'm leanings towards bad? I don't know I think I might fold in tougher fields $100 FO? i'm not sure. thanks.

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You aren't gettting an overlay with AK offsuit vs. pocket pairs. QQ-TT you are 43%. 99-55 you are 45%. In the example above, you are calling 14000 to win 15200 (no antes mentioned) and need 48% equity. Of course, AA-KK are in his distribution. And the example does not say how many are left to act after you either, which would be an important factor.

I might make this call with AK suited, but AK offsuit its a routine fold given the circumstances.

However, if UTG was 4000 and the average was 7000 and you had 14000, it might be a different story. AQ-AT and KQ are far more likely to be in his distribution.