A Difficult Poker Hand: Playing With AK
Ace King has a special meaning in Poker. It is known as the Big Slick. The reason for this is because you can both win or lose a big pot with this hand. If an Ace comes on the flop most of the times you are well ahead or behind of your opponent. In low stakes poker you can play very aggressively your top pair top kicker hands like in this case with the AK. If the flop were A82 unsuited, then we can say you should bet strongly and comfortably your hand. The problem comes when the flop is for example AJT all of them hearts and your King is a non heart King. In this situation you have to consider many factors how you play this hand.
What are these factors? What do you have to consider when making your decision? Let's see the first example when you had AK and the flop were A82 unsuited. Assuming you had 25-35BB and you already raised to 5BB preflop in a 0.25$/0.50$ blind level game and someone called you. In this situation just go ahead, bet the pot on flop, if the turn is not a scary card (on this flop with small stakes you can basically push your hand regardless what comes on the turn) you can also bet the pot on turn and get all-in on the river. At small stakes many times your opponents will pay you off showing an Ace with worse kicker.
The other situation is when the flop AJT hearts and you have AK with no heart (only the King could have been a heart). In this situation if you and your opponent both had deep stacks and he checked front of you, you can be ready to play Small Ball strategy. That means you can go ahead and try to take the pot on the flop which would be a good result for you based on the scary board. However if you opponent calls then you have to check on the turn behind him or make a smaller call, because he could have a flush or straight and you might have no outs on your opponent! In this case you do not want to build a big pot like in the first example, but try to keep the pot small and make the showdown without going all-in. Other factors that you need to consider is: how many players are sitting at your table, what kind of player is your actual opponent, what is your reputation in the session, what is your position, what is your opponents' position, and how large is your and your opponents stack.
Ace King has a special meaning in Poker. It is known as the Big Slick. The reason for this is because you can both win or lose a big pot with this hand. If an Ace comes on the flop most of the times you are well ahead or behind of your opponent. In low stakes poker you can play very aggressively your top pair top kicker hands like in this case with the AK. If the flop were A82 unsuited, then we can say you should bet strongly and comfortably your hand. The problem comes when the flop is for example AJT all of them hearts and your King is a non heart King. In this situation you have to consider many factors how you play this hand.
What are these factors? What do you have to consider when making your decision? Let's see the first example when you had AK and the flop were A82 unsuited. Assuming you had 25-35BB and you already raised to 5BB preflop in a 0.25$/0.50$ blind level game and someone called you. In this situation just go ahead, bet the pot on flop, if the turn is not a scary card (on this flop with small stakes you can basically push your hand regardless what comes on the turn) you can also bet the pot on turn and get all-in on the river. At small stakes many times your opponents will pay you off showing an Ace with worse kicker.
The other situation is when the flop AJT hearts and you have AK with no heart (only the King could have been a heart). In this situation if you and your opponent both had deep stacks and he checked front of you, you can be ready to play Small Ball strategy. That means you can go ahead and try to take the pot on the flop which would be a good result for you based on the scary board. However if you opponent calls then you have to check on the turn behind him or make a smaller call, because he could have a flush or straight and you might have no outs on your opponent! In this case you do not want to build a big pot like in the first example, but try to keep the pot small and make the showdown without going all-in. Other factors that you need to consider is: how many players are sitting at your table, what kind of player is your actual opponent, what is your reputation in the session, what is your position, what is your opponents' position, and how large is your and your opponents stack.
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