Going all-in with AK preflop

Hello,

I have a general question about getting your money all-in with AK heads-up preflop.

So far, I have been playing AK to see the flop, and then being v careful if I don't hit an A or K. However, I was watching a strategy vid the other night and the commentator said that too many people were too careful with AK and it was definitely +EV to go all-in heads up preflop as you want to see all 5 cards with this hand.

Occasionaly you may run into pocket Kings or Aces, but that even though this play is high variance, it is +EV and should be done whenever possible.

Is this the accepted view? If you don't hit a pair, all you have is ace high - surely you'll be losing money more often than not?

It depends on villain.

If villain is 8/6/2 over a good sample size and 4bet shoves, you can happily fold AK.

If villain is 42/42/20 and 4bet shoves, you can probably go ahead and call and expect to be good most of the time.

Obviously other things come into account as well, but that's what you should mainly be looking at.

A large part of the value of AK pre flop comes from fold equity, plus we aren't usually in terrible shape when the money goes all in (villain dependent ofc). We're also going to be want to be playing a pre-flop strategy that isn't so face-up that your opponent knows you are only 3bet/4bet/5bet jamming KK+.

AK is one of the top 3% of hands equity-wise too and we should be looking to get more money in the pot with our value hands. Don't forget that when our 3bet gets called, villain often misses the board too or doesn't flop a set and we can easily cbet to take down the pot with initiative and make villain relinquish his equity (including that additional money villain put into the pot before folding).

The reason it can be a bit hard to explain is that at 2nl a lot of the time we want to be getting our money in with AK because people stack off with really stupid shit, yet at the same time there are people who will only 3bet with QQ+ in which case 4betting is useless as we are in crappy shape and they are never not shoving.

Yet when you start playing people who actually have a 3betting range that isn't so stupidly narrow we have huge amounts of fold equity. Say someone is 3betting a range of like 88+, AQ+. (which is still very value heavy), depending on the sizing we can fold out a lot of that range with AK by 4betting something along the lines of QQ+, AK because a hand like 88-JJ plays horribly against that range and we block AA and KK.

And that doesn't even begin to take into account when people start 3bet & 4bet bluffing which happens at higher stakes.

Originally Posted by The Bean Counter

A large part of the value of AK pre flop comes from fold equity, plus we aren't usually in terrible shape when the money goes all in (villain dependent ofc). We're also going to be want to be playing a pre-flop strategy that isn't so face-up that your opponent knows you are only 3bet/4bet/5bet jamming KK+.

AK is one of the top 3% of hands equity-wise too and we should be looking to get more money in the pot with our value hands. Don't forget that when our 3bet gets called, villain often misses the board too or doesn't flop a set and we can easily cbet to take down the pot with initiative and make villain relinquish his equity (including that additional money villain put into the pot before folding).

I agree with everything you have posted but I would just like to say that we don't really need to worry about balancing our 3bet/4bet/shoving range at 2NL. It's something to take into consideration as you move up the stakes for sure.

Play AKo more cautiously and AKs for stacks.

Originally Posted by jackvance

Play AKo more cautiously and AKs for stacks.

this is simple and should make playing Ak better imo..

your going to run into trouble if you try to weigh it every time it's dealt, especially when your starting out. your mind is often trying to hard to play perfect, and mistakes come easy. nice advice JV

Bleh, damn the numbers. Every time I get it in preflop with AK vs guys that'll stack off with like AJ or 99, I run in to AA or KK. Never fails, so I just open fold pre.

Originally Posted by TNreg

Bleh, damn the numbers. Every time I get it in preflop with AK vs guys that'll stack off with like AJ or 99, I run in to AA or KK. Never fails, so I just open fold pre.

Why don't you flat their raise and outplay villains who stack offl light?? AK is going to make you money, but if you don't get used to playing it it's not...

I was joking ldfo... I'd never open fold AK to a standard PFR. C'mon man, I'm new but not that new.

It's not terribly uncommon that you can 3b/5b/7b all-in with AKo preflop and it's not terribly uncommon that you should fold AKs to a 3b. Sometimes flatting a single raise is best with AK and sometimes flatting a 3b is the worst of your 3 options (between 4b, call and fold). Everything is an "it depends" in poker, but this is like the ULTIMATE "it depends."

The most helpful general advice to give is to put your opponent on a raising range, know your own 3b'ing range (or if it's a player who wouldn't put you on a range, then know your 3b'ing image), put them on a 4b'ing range and go from there. Obviously things like postflop reads are very helpful to know how profitable flatting is, but just starting with opponent's range and your range is a good start.

Originally Posted by Cobra_1878

I agree with everything you have posted but I would just like to say that we don't really need to worry about balancing our 3bet/4bet/shoving range at 2NL. It's something to take into consideration as you move up the stakes for sure.

I think there's some truth in what you say. Where I think a lot of 2nl players go wrong however is by not 3betting a wide-enough value range.