AK facing re-raise?

[Werddown]

How do you play AK if you get re-raised preflop by an unknown?

What do you do when the flop comes A or K high giving you TPTK?

Pretty general questions, but I'm looking for general answers.

[djzcko]

Re-raise. I play AK like AA or KK pre-flop and on the flop. After that, if villain is still in the hand I will re-evaluate and most likely check/fold if the flop or turn didn't improve my hand. Playing AK weak will leave $ on the table...playing it too strong will lose lots of $. Playing it just right and it should be a very profitable hand for you.

What hands are you afraid of? The likelyhood of villain having AA or KK is the same as if you had KK and he has AA. In other words, it will happen 1/25 times if you are playing full 10 person ring. Not enough to worry about...

[andy-akb]

Re-raise. I play AK like AA or KK pre-flop and on the flop. After that, if villain is still in the hand I will re-evaluate and most likely check/fold if the flop or turn didn't improve my hand. Playing AK weak will leave $ on the table...playing it too strong will lose lots of $. Playing it just right and it should be a very profitable hand for you.

What hands are you afraid of? The likelyhood of villain having AA or KK is the same as if you had KK and he has AA. In other words, it will happen 1/25 times if you are playing full 10 person ring. Not enough to worry about...

If you play AK like AA and KK then what are your opponents going to be calling your 3bet with? Yes, the likelyhood of them having one of those hands is very low, but when they call the 3bet or put in a4th bet, those chances skyrocket. I feel like this would either pick up the raise or put you in a bad spot to lose your stack.

[Lukie]

Re-raise. I play AK like AA or KK pre-flop and on the flop. After that, if villain is still in the hand I will re-evaluate and most likely check/fold if the flop or turn didn't improve my hand. Playing AK weak will leave $ on the table...playing it too strong will lose lots of $. Playing it just right and it should be a very profitable hand for you.

What hands are you afraid of? The likelyhood of villain having AA or KK is the same as if you had KK and he has AA. In other words, it will happen 1/25 times if you are playing full 10 person ring. Not enough to worry about...

lol so you raise with AK, an unknown repops you, you're putting in a 3rd raise?

[magneticskull]

lol so you raise with AK, an unknown repops you, you're putting in a 3rd raise?

This is EXACTLY how I knocked myself out of an MTT (in 42nd out of 1011) a few days ago when I had NO NEED to be in the hand, stack wise.
And part of me was saying..."isn't a reraise of a huge raise from a big stack a sign of ACES...?" and the donkey-me says: "NAHH... HEEHAW... PUSH"

[Renton]

I pitch AK a lot when reraised. Especially when it isn't suited. Especially when I am out of position. Especially when the reraiser is generally passive.

Against others I just call and look for a favorable flop, and play it fairly strongly it I hit.

[djzcko]

Re-raise. I play AK like AA or KK pre-flop and on the flop. After that, if villain is still in the hand I will re-evaluate and most likely check/fold if the flop or turn didn't improve my hand. Playing AK weak will leave $ on the table...playing it too strong will lose lots of $. Playing it just right and it should be a very profitable hand for you.

What hands are you afraid of? The likelyhood of villain having AA or KK is the same as if you had KK and he has AA. In other words, it will happen 1/25 times if you are playing full 10 person ring. Not enough to worry about...

lol so you raise with AK, an unknown repops you, you're putting in a 3rd raise?

Uhm, yep. May not work at the stakes (and site) you play but it works in $25nl and $50nl at Pokerroom. Of times I have re-popped w/AK and went to a showdown, villain has shown QQ, A-rag, JJ and once AA. Of the ones without a showdown, villain has folded to my flop bet...must have put me on AA or KK. Don't get me wrong, I have folded AK to a re-raise from a 1-2% pf raiser before but as a general rule, I play it aggressive to an unknown. I am sure at the higher limits, you don't have as many donks that think QQ, JJ, TT or A-rag is the nuts...so sure, it's probably not profitable to play it like that when most will only re-raise with an actual premium hand.

[Renton]

fourbetting with AK sucks except in tournaments, where it OCCASIONALLY the right play.

[Werddown]

it will happen 1/25 times if you are playing full 10 person ring. Not enough to worry about...

Yes, the likelyhood of them having one of those hands is very low, but when they call the 3bet or put in a4th bet, those chances skyrocket. I feel like this would either pick up the raise or put you in a bad spot to lose your stack.

I run into the most trouble when the flop comes A or K high and I overplay it into a set of aces or kings. I think "the chances of them having the last two aces or kings is so small!" when in reality it is not that unlikely given their preflop action. Also, when I flop top pair, its really obvious what I have at that point. Its easy for them to get away from QQ and below, and its hard for me to put them on aces or kings. All of these factors add to my difficulty playing the hand post flop against an unknown who re-raised preflop.

[mcatdog]

I just fold it a lot of the time. Like you said it's really obvious what you have and if you flop top pair, you will never get all-in against a lower pair unless they have a set. If you're up against an unknown you can usually assume he's a passive donk who's only re-raising like 2% of his hands so AK has horrible reverse implied odds and basically sucks in this spot.

fourbetting with AK sucks except in tournaments, where it OCCASIONALLY the right play.

I don't necessarily agree, if the three-bet is coming from a total psycho with 60BB or less then I'm more than happy to get all-in preflop with him when I have AK.

[The Izebox]

I think you need to post more info, is this limit or no limit? How much did he reraise?

[freechus9]

(This is a NL section)

[Setzy]

Yes, the question is definitely what stakes. From the stakes I know and love ($25NL), if you get re-raised...meaning you have already raised and you get RE-raised...I call or fold depending on the stack size of the opponent and and the size of the re-raise.

Example A, $25nl: You have AK in EP. You raise a standard amount ($1), and it folds to pokergodlol in late position. He re-raises to $1.75, and has a full stack. I call and play the flop accordingly, and with some degree of caution.

Example B, $25nl: You have AK in EP. You raise a standard amount ($1), and it folds to pokergodlol in late position. He re-raises to $4, and has a full stack. I'm folding this if I don't know who pokergodlol is.

Example C, $25nl: You have AK in EP. You raise a standard amount ($1), and it folds to pokergodlol in late position. He raises it to $3, and has a stack of $5.75. More often than not I'm just putting it all in preflop here, as long as nobody else is in the pot.

Example D, $25nl: You have AK in EP. You raise a standard amount ($1), and it folds to pokergodlol in late position. He raises to $3 and has a stack of $10. Here I'll probably call and if I hit the flop or have a decent draw, insta-push.


But that's me, and that's early position. Honestly I think AK is my worst hand.