Too Passive with AK?

[TrueBritt]

2-5 at Wynn.
Stacks of $400 each.
I am in the SB.
Villian is a loose player in middle position.
Villian raises to 20.
Everyone folds to me.

I used to reraise in this situation, and c-bet any flop (if it was just the two of us) but lately I've taken to just calling his raise, and check-folding if I miss the flop. I like this low-risk strategy, but is this too passive?

What if there is one other caller? Do you like it then? What if I am on the button? Does that change your assessment?

If I'm short-stacked, I like going all-in here, especially if there is a caller or two, but how short do I need to be to do this?

[Denutz]

TB,

While your strategy mitigates your risks, it also mitigates your winnings. Most of the value you're going to get with AK is going to be preflop as an A or K hitting the flop will scare off most smaller pocket pairs. You have one of the best starting hands - I raise to 50 and prefer to take it down right there.

Whether you c-bet the flop depends on your opponent - some times your check may look scarier than a c-bet and an opponent will allow you to take off the turn if they think you've hit a monster on the flop and are hoping they will bet.

To go all in, I'd prefer to be 50 BBs or less as most of the time you'll either end up just taking down the dead money or getting in a race as a slight dog, or, once in while, as a huge dog.

On the button I would also raise, but just the min to 40. With position the hand will be much easier to play and you'll hopefully be able to determine much of the action.

[DoubleTwentyOne]

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TB,

While your strategy mitigates your risks, it also mitigates your winnings. Most of the value you're going to get with AK is going to be preflop as an A or K hitting the flop will scare off most smaller pocket pairs. You have one of the best starting hands - I raise to 50 and prefer to take it down right there.


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Solid play

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Whether you c-bet the flop depends on your opponent - some times your check may look scarier than a c-bet and an opponent will allow you to take off the turn if they think you've hit a monster on the flop and are hoping they will bet.


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This will highly depend on the skill level of your opponent, dumb opponents will view your check as weakness, while smart opponents may view it as strength. You'd really have to be sure about your opponent checking behind to check on the flop, because a dumb loose player will just automatically put you on AK and bet and take the pot from you.

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To go all in, I'd prefer to be 50 BBs or less as most of the time you'll either end up just taking down the dead money or getting in a race as a slight dog, or, once in while, as a huge dog.

On the button I would also raise, but just the min to 40. With position the hand will be much easier to play and you'll hopefully be able to determine much of the action.

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True, if your opponent has JJ or less the fold equity here makes a push clearly the correct play by far. He may even fold QQ if he's tight enough.

[jlocdog]

I think AK here is the optimal hand to go 50-50 0r 60-40 with changing up. If you have to showdown AK from OOP when you reraise then when you limp, your hand will be truly disguised. And vice versa.

People remember big hands like that and try to recall what you did preflop to give them a quick profile of your play. For instance, if you see someone cold call a raise with AK then you immmediatly profile them as passive or tight or both. You have limited info on them and every ounce of info given is valuable. Especially at the beginning when starting the sample. As you play with this opponent over time (that session or multiple ones) the strength of each peice of info lessens as your sample size gets larger (like a batting average in baseball, the first few hits moves your average hundreds of points while the last few at the end of the season will move it maybe a point).

I tend to choose to limp or reraise depending upon the table and what image I would like to throw out there to start them off with. If you are already in the middle of your session and they have decent amopunt of "info" logged on you, then I would play the opposite of my perceived image.

Remember as well that most players stink. So if you raised with AK on the CO they don't register that as being different from holding it in the blind. So to them, you are an AK raiser.