AK worth pushing here?

[Anosmic]

So I'm on the button with :Kd: :As: in a $10NL game on Titan.

There are two limpers and I raise to $0.60, SB folds, BB calls and UTG+1 goes all-in for $1.50, the other limper folds.

What to do?
The BB has about $6 in front of him, so I push.

What do you think?

[jackvance]

Standard play when I feel like gambling.

[flotu]

This is a very good spot to push.

[Lukie]

standard

[Anosmic]

Thanks guys.

I know it's results-oriented but I got stung on a couple of hands today and so I started second guessing it.

On this instance the flop came up 6A6 and if I'd just called I could probably have got the pot here with a push. As it turns out the guy had QQ and he picked up a Q on the turn.

[Jiggus]

Why do the repliers all say it's standard to push?

I feel AK is never an all in hand pre-flop. It only pairs up something like 35% of the time. Plus I'm thinking that a re-raiser has got AA or KK anyhow.

I've also been told by others on this site that you should only go all in with KK or AA, and I have been sticking to that for the most part, but I'm thinking of late that any pair is a possible all in hand, and certainly a pair seems stronger than AK pre-flop.

But I know squat.

[flotu]

Why do the repliers all say it's standard to push?

I feel AK is never an all in hand pre-flop. It only pairs up something like 35% of the time. Plus I'm thinking that a re-raiser has got AA or KK anyhow.

I've also been told by others on this site that you should only go all in with KK or AA, and I have been sticking to that for the most part, but I'm thinking of late that any pair is a possible all in hand, and certainly a pair seems stronger than AK pre-flop.

But I know squat.

It's very, very unlikely that BB has AA or KK and there's already pretty much in the pot. This is why this is a good situation to push. If BB decides to call with AQ - great, if he calls with QQ or worse it's coin flip.

[Lukie]

Why do the repliers all say it's standard to push?

I feel AK is never an all in hand pre-flop. It only pairs up something like 35% of the time. Plus I'm thinking that a re-raiser has got AA or KK anyhow.

I've also been told by others on this site that you should only go all in with KK or AA, and I have been sticking to that for the most part, but I'm thinking of late that any pair is a possible all in hand, and certainly a pair seems stronger than AK pre-flop.

But I know squat.

Because there's a lot of dead money in the pot, UTG+1 is a donkey shortstack who's range we are way ahead of here, the other limper folded, and we're faced with a BB that just called a button bet out of the BB with 2 people still to act behind him. The chances that he has KK/AA is very slim (not even mentioning the fact that we hold an ace and a king).

and AK (not saying its always, or even often a good allin hand) is so far and away better in spots like this then small/mid pairs. In this spot, I'd rather have AK then a pair of tens.

edit: also forgot to add that the BB is only 60bb deep, and pushing gives us a chance to see all 5 cards which is one of AK's huge strengths

[jackvance]

At first, when I started with poker, I learned that AK was the nuts. The 4th strongest hand after AA/KK/QQ.

Then, I found out that AK vs any pp means you have somewhat less than 50% to win! (between 48% and 45% - the lower the pp, the higher the chance of getting two board pairs and winning with your A kicker, this accounts for the 3% difference when going from QQ to 22) I suddenly started to hate this crappy AK hand!

Now, however, I've totally started to reappreciate AK. It really *is* a moneymaker once you learn how to play it properly. Over the last 8.5k hands in my database, AK is my second biggest moneymaker. And it had to step down because I have gotten a rush of AA over the last 1.5k hands, miraculously holding up too. A few days ago, at 7k hands, AK had made me more money than AA, KK and QQ combined!

Interesting.. looking at my stats, AKs however has lost me money. Probably because I still play it like the nuts whereas I know better how to play AKo. *making a mental note*

[yorib]

Wait, so the BB called a raise and then an AI (from the raiser) with QQ? I don't know if you would have pushed him off with a bet on the 6A6 flop. Considering that the first guy folded to the reraise I'd have pushed too hoping to isolate the short stack.

JV: I have had much more success with AKs than AKo. If the flush hits on the river it's a guarantee of taking any other chasers stack. It can also give you redraws to the nuts on a board like KQJT.

[jackvance]

JV: I have had much more success with AKs than AKo. If the flush hits on the river it's a guarantee of taking any other chasers stack. It can also give you redraws to the nuts on a board like KQJT.

It's probably a sample size thing with me. I looked over my AKs hands and they were all blind steals except for one big pot where I chased the flush but didn't hit it and had to fold the river.

[geoffm33]

Last night I pushed AKo over a BB reraise (he was > 40% VP$IP) and we both got all in PF.

Villain flips AQo and catches a boat xxAQA...

Oh well. I told him "nh". He actually apologized for going AI with AQo, but I told him "that's pokah!", he laughed.