How should we play AK preflop?

[AAismyfriend]

YOU HAVE THE NUTS!

[HedonismBot]

Players with a good understanding of the game will want to play this differently from players with a fundamentally lacking one. I recommend always 4 betting all in

[Janis N.]

If you always 4bet this all in then you have to 4bet KK+ all in quite a few times and and that makes 4betting light against light 3bettors intending to fold or calling 3bets to trap with KK+ more difficult as you just don't have enough KK+ to balance it all out.

P.S. I'm aware I will get leveled and berated for this, but this is actually a serious concern of mine.

[HedonismBot]

It is indeed a problem but since you grasp said problem I wouldn't advocate always pushing AK to you. But if you can't even conceive of these balance problems like it seems Recallme cannot then I say arr in!

[recallme]

I obviously know that`s it balancing problem with KK+, but than just give me the advice i asked for or ignore me.
I think it`s not that easy to decide whether to 4bet to 800 or to 4bet shove.
I think most won`t call , right?

[HedonismBot]

I just think you can't give advise to other people on things like how often to 3 bet or 4 bet because it depends on all other aspects of your game such as vpip pfr and how much they 3 and 4 bet and other stuff, so you're really asking too much

[FionnMac]

recallme,

i know this is at 10/20nl, but this is a $100nl level hand. Please post it in SSNL next time, or ask someone on msn/aim.

[Hattifnatt]

Structured post OP, nice.

Raising and folding to a shove is obv def not an option.

I prefer just folding since he raised an UTG raiser from MP which normally shows lots of strength.

"2. Fold: It doesn`t fit into my aggro style"

I dont see why folding is a problem for your style/image or whatever..

Shoving is OK as well even though it somewhat puts your hand face up. I dont like calling here even though its not totally insane if you have a good plan what to do postflop, if it is to c/f any flop you miss its a very dumb option.

If you decide to raise to 700 and he calls, do you auto-shove any flop?

"How does your action change if it`s CO vs BU?"

Thats a totally different thing.

[Trix]

Yeah, we should discuss folding KK pre when shortstacks 4bets ai and gets flatcalled instead, that´s a much more common spot that will really improve our winrates!

[duh]

Here is a serious reply:

4-Betting less than allin has 2 advantages:

1) It is ususally much scarier, JJ/QQ often fold, and the times you get AK to fold are huge.

2) You price yourself into felting if villan gets stubborn.



I think 4-Bet shoving is fine if you do it with a wide range. Many players always shove AK, but not much else. This is pretty exploitable.

I think whatever you do, it should be consistent with how you play AA/KK