AK at $5NL

Hi,

I'm currently grinding it out at $5NL on stars, and feel like I'm improving having for some reason when I first moved up from $2NL to not play like I had been there but instead to just be an idiot as much as possible. Anyway, I'm trying to fix some of my undoubtedly many leaks, and I feel like AK is probably the hand I play worst out of all of them.

Obviously I should be raising if nobody has in the hand before me, but I never really know what line to take if someone has raised before me, or if I am getting reraised.

Of course it depends on the villain, but how would you suggest playing against different villains?

Normally if there is a raise before me I will reraise if I have position, and if I don't have position I'll call or reraise, with reraising becoming more likely the looser the villain gets.

If I am reraised, I really don't know what to do. I don't like raising as then more often than not you end up all in preflop with a hand that sucks against villain's range, or villain folds (which isn't too bad but I think is less common than ending up all in).

However it feels weak to just fold to a reraise preflop with AK, especially against someone who isn't a nit, and calling I don't like either because I don't think it's a profitable play (if you don't hit you have to give up, and if you do hit then most of the time you get action you're still behind).

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on AK at this level in particular, and microstakes in general.

PS Am talking about when villain and myself both have 100bb effective stack.

you're DEFINITELY not folding to a 3bet (if you fold to a three bet with AK then what the hell are you not folding with; hence you're gonna get 3bet til you can't get 3bet no more if someone notices it's a profitable play). calling the 3bet isn't as terrible as you think it is, or at least not for the reasons you think it is. you hit the flop 1/3 of the time (not counting FD's and gutter balls) and when AK hits you're golden (not AT ALL implying that you're not going to get into sticky situations but you are going to make money overall). the problem with flatting here i think has more to do with merging ranges.

4bet isn't a bad play but you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO have already known before you put those chips in whether you're willing to call an all in. a cold call here is a really weird play even for fish so you're either winning the money that's already in the pot or you're at risk of being pushed off the hand. this is why i struggle with AK and QQ because they're GREAT hands but just barely not good enough for me to feel comfortable going all in with preflop against a nit.

i know i didn't answer your question but those are just some deeper reflections on some of the things you touched on. there's an article on this in the beginner's digest but it's for MTT's and doesn't serve as a cook book guide on how to play it in FR games

Originally Posted by surviva316

you're DEFINITELY not folding to a 3bet (if you fold to a three bet with AK then what the hell are you not folding with; hence you're gonna get 3bet til you can't get 3bet no more if someone notices it's a profitable play).

While I accept this is true at higher levels, I would say that at this level it's rare that people's 3-bet ranges are wider than QQ+, AK unless they are very loose, meaning that firstly, I don't get 3-bet often enough that people would notice a trend in my reactions to them without playing a very large number of hands with me, and secondly, most of the players are not good enough to notice.

Thanks for your input though, I'll probably reply in more detail later. Would be nice to get some discussion on this is possible.

If you're folding to a 4-bet, why are you 3-betting? You're folding most of the hands you want to play against and allowing the rest to push you off a powerful hand.

Originally Posted by okiman

If you're folding to a 4-bet, why are you 3-betting? You're folding most of the hands you want to play against and allowing the rest to push you off a powerful hand.

We're ahead of our opponent's 3bet calling range PF but when they 4bet we're more than a 2:1 dog to their range.

Originally Posted by bigspenda73

Originally Posted by okiman

If you're folding to a 4-bet, why are you 3-betting? You're folding most of the hands you want to play against and allowing the rest to push you off a powerful hand.

We're ahead of our opponent's 3bet calling range PF but when they 4bet we're more than a 2:1 dog to their range.

Good point. I think my best line for now at least will be to 3-bet if someone raises, but fold if someone 3-bets unless they are very loose. I think also maybe I have been trying too hard to take down the pot post flop just because I have AK, even though I have missed, so I'll try and avoid doing that.