post-flop AK pay?

jimbling

This seems to be happening to me a lot. You are dealt AK (s or o). A big raise pre-flop goes in, and you hit nothing on the flop. e.g. 7 j 8 comes out. Its checked around to you (or sometimes a small bet). What do you do? I havent quite figured this out. Do you dump straight away if you've hit nothing and someone else throws in a moderate bet. Do you try and win the pot, give them the impression u have a higher than board pair.

and if you do try to buy it and someone calls... what do you do on the turn if still hit nothing.

I know there are other things like stack size, quality of player etc.... but I can't try and describe each scenario.

Basically, as the title states... how do you play AK post-flop?


The reason I ask this is because pt is telling me that AKs is my weakest hand. I can only think that this is because I play it badly.

Tackle

If I don't hit it, and the board comes up rags, I'd usually fold to a bet if there was more than 1 opponent. You've got 6 outs and you could be up against a pair. The other players probably know you've missed when a flop comes up like this and I wouldn't bother bluffing it as there's a good chance you'll piss away most/all of your chips. I used to always bluff in this kind of situation when I missed and most of the time I'd be left with a fairly shortstack when the hand was finished. I've had much better results since I started letting it go.
If it was checked around, I'd take the free card.
You'll hit 33% of the time, so just make sure you maximize your income through slow playing/dominating when it hits to outweigh the misses.

If I'm UTG, I might fire in moderate bet against one opponent, but if he calls I'm not putting anymore in the pot unless I hit on the turn.

jimbling

ya... that seems like sound advice... and it does appear to be the best way to play the hand. But if this is the case, then surely putting in a large bet with A K is not really advisable either. I mean if your taking the case that you must hit the flop in order to be involved in the hand, then your not really in too good a position.

And if you take the scenario that someone else has raised before you, do you just call... or re-raise?



question: is A K better or worse than Q Q. Most places I see say A K, but by using the advice above, with A K you are hoping to hit an A or K, whereas Q Q your are hoping for pretty much anything else. Doesn't that mean Q Q is a better hand?

if anyone knows the actually probabilities of this etc... it would help.....Hectorjelly?

careca

jimbling wrote:

ya... that seems like sound advice... and it does appear to be the best way to play the hand. But if this is the case, then surely putting in a large bet with A K is not really advisable either. I mean if your taking the case that you must hit the flop in order to be involved in the hand, then your not really in too good a position.

And if you take the scenario that someone else has raised before you, do you just call... or re-raise?



question: is A K better or worse than Q Q. Most places I see say A K, but by using the advice above, with A K you are hoping to hit an A or K, whereas Q Q your are hoping for pretty much anything else. Doesn't that mean Q Q is a better hand?

if anyone knows the actually probabilities of this etc... it would help.....Hectorjelly?

QQ is a better hand than AK. Ranging from 54%-57% fav depending on whether the AK is suited and/or contains the suit of one of your queens. Basically if they come up against each other AK (whether suited or not) has to hit something to win whereas QQ doesn't. There are lots of sites (carplayer.com) that show you hand matchups (%s), but this one should be fairly obvious to you.

jimbling

yes it is actually... .i was thinking along a different line... and didnt mean heads up either.
I realise that heads up any two pair has an advantage over any other overpair... and more so for Q Q as it slightly blocks the run advantage of the AK.

what I really meant was in a large table.... which do you prefer to see... which do you raise more with QQ or AK??

I mean QQ is a great hand, but if an A or K come out you could be in trouble.. do you bet with an overcard... etc... and AK has its own problems....

NickyOD

jimbling wrote:

Basically, as the title states... how do you play AK post-flop?
The reason I ask this is because pt is telling me that AKs is my weakest hand. I can only think that this is because I play it badly.

Unless the hand is heads up you should pretty much always take a free card and see what they do on the turn. If you have one preflop caller and you have position on him I would usually (but not always) throw out a half pot size bet if the flop is pretty innocent looking. You only need to take the pot once every 3 attempts for this to be a profitable play. The only time I wouldn't do it is against a bad calling station or on a draw heavy board.

careca

jimbling wrote:

yes it is actually... .i was thinking along a different line... and didnt mean heads up either.
I realise that heads up any two pair has an advantage over any other overpair... and more so for Q Q as it slightly blocks the run advantage of the AK.

what I really meant was in a large table.... which do you prefer to see... which do you raise more with QQ or AK??

I mean QQ is a great hand, but if an A or K come out you could be in trouble.. do you bet with an overcard... etc... and AK has its own problems....

Sorry, my original post sounded like I was being smart. Wasn't intendend. I would always prefer to look down at QQ. AK can be so much trouble. Of course the tricky part is laying down the QQ if an A or a K falls. Its too easy to say I would or wouldn't fold it. All depends on stack sizes, stage of tournie, size of pot, etc.