Quote Originally Posted by Ultimate George
Quote Originally Posted by Lukie
Dear god no.. don't open with a 2x raise.

Not only is it terrible play, but it pisses everybody off as well.
Exactly. I like to come over the top of min-raisers with a 8-10x's BB raise. Sometimes with any two. Now where does your AK stand?

Your min-raise tells me that you possibly have, a) a monster, or b) a hand you like, but not an overly powerful hand. Depending on my read and stack sizes I'll jam the pot, and take your 2 BB plus everyone else that was silly enough to call.
The squeeze play against a fishy 2xBB can very nice indeed. The great things I've noticed about this move:

-If the PFR does have a marginal holding, he'll fold, and if there were a few callers sitting in mid/late position, they will most likely fold as well (few players would have the audacity to sandbag a big pair in this situation.)
-If the PFR has a monster, as some minraisers will no doubt occasionally possess, he'll let me know. If I'm reraised strongly, I'm gone; if just called, I'm looking for a big flop and that's it.
-The play is incredibly good for image, whether I win the pot or not. At full ring games I play an incredibly TAG game (usually only seeing 15% of flops) but playing some hands in this decisive, "maniac" manner creates the impression that I am actually a maniac, and some of my big hands get paid off later.

I know the topic is about raising AK in EP, and I didn't mean to hijack the thread. For the record, playing online SSNLHE, I always always open AK in EP for 3x+. In live play against decent/good players I will occasionally (maybe 10% of the time) just call with AK in EP to mix up my game, because they tend to think I'm set hunting, or slowplaying aces or cowboys.

NOTE: When I typed "fishy" in the first sentence, I didn't mean that if you attempt a 2xBB raise you are a fish. Far from it. i do it maybe 3% of the time for purely deceptive reasons, and I have been screwed by a minraise or two before. (Not cool.)