Poker Strategy

Is is correct to raise with AK in Holdem preflop? This is a very controversial question. I know some players who will virtually always put in a raise preflop with AK and there are some who will never raise with it. Who is right? I believe that the anser is "it depends". But first let me point out the strengths and weaknesses of the AK.

The strength of the AK lies primarilly in the fact that if nobody has a pocket pair, it is currently the best hand and in a ten-handed game there is only a 53% chance that one or more of your nine opponents holds a pocket pair when you hold AK (or any other two non-paired cards). Secondly, with the highest two cards of deck, you will have the best pair if any ace or king comes up on the board, beating any smaller pocket pair or split pair. The weakness of the AK (as opposed to a big pocket pair such as JJ) is that it could easilly get beat. Your opponnet could be playing the biggest trash and will beat you with a pair of deuces if you catch nothing and a deuce comes up and don't think this is far fetched, because I see it happening all the time. Also, if your opponent does have a pocket pair, you now must hit a pair in order to beat him and if he hits a set, you are drawing dead.

From EP

From Early position it is incorrect to raise in a typical full-handed game where you expect to get several callers. You will have the worst position and you will therefore be forced to check on most flops when you don't hit a pair or better. This EP "check" on the flop leaves you vulnerable to a bluff by an opponent in LP representing some sort of a hand. If you plan to bet out in EP on the flop even when you don't hit, what are you going to do if you are raised? Most players would just call and usually fold on the turn or on the river but there is no guarentee that your opponent actually has a hand. If he can "put" you on an AK or the like, he knows that you have missed the flop when there are no picture cards on board. What if you bet out on the flop and are just called by several players; what will you do on the turn when you don't catch any help? Now, it is almost impossible for you to value-bet your hand. You have to figure that somebody has got something and in some cases you will now be drawing very slim or dead. So you will check and there will usually be a bet behind you and you will be forced to fold figuring that you have six outs at best and it's not worth it.

It is important to understand that in Holdem the preflop raiser is always the aggressor and people "expect" him to keep betting and/or raising after the flop. This expectation allows them to conceal the strength and caliber of their hand and it works to the detriment of the raiser because they know where the raiser stands but the raiser doesn't know where they satnd. For example: let's say you raise preflop with AK in EP and the flop comes 764. Your opponent is holding K5s. He knows that you didn't raise preflop with any of that junk. He has a draw only but since he intends to stay to the river anyway, he now raises you on the flop or bets after you check because you raised preflop. If you hadn't raised preflop and you came out betting on this flop, he figures that you could have anything and he can't bet his draw aggressively: you could have flopped top pair, two pair or the straight. When you do raise preflop, he can make a move on you even if he thinks you have a pocket pair because he expects you to be afraid of two pair or a straight. So the preflop raise hurts you quite a bit when it comes to playing your hand after the flop.

Now let's see what happens if you don't raise in EP. You expect to get many callers and possibly a raise behind you anyway. So you just limp from under the gun. About half the time, the flop will be utter junk, like 973, 865 or the like. You will be glad that you didn't raise; so will you simply check and fold. The odds are that AK high is no longer good (if it ever was) and it only cost you one small bet for a chance to win a big pot. About 40% of the time you will have some sort of hand (top pair or straight draw) so you will either bet out or check-call. 32% of the time you will actually have top pair or better and if the board is not threatening you otherwise, you have to figure that you now have the best hand, so you will bet it aggressively. Your opponent, possibly with a big ace or big king himself, will not give you an AK because you didn't raise preflop; so you will now extract many more bets from him than if you had raised preflop!

What about giving your opponents a cheap flop? That's not much of a concern for several reasons. One, you don't have much of a hand. In a full-handed game it is very hard to win unimproved, so you essentially have a draw hand. If you miss you must fold. Secondly, with nine players yet to act, there is a very good chance that someone has you beat already (and they will most likely call your raise anyway, if not reraise), so why raise with the worst hand? The better hand is actually giving you a cheap flop if he doesn't raise even if he's got puny little deuces! And finally, since you have the worst position, position carries more weight than the importance of charging your opponent the max to try to draw out on you, as we have already explained earlier.

What about AK in EP in a short-handed game or in a tight game. This is a different story altogether. If your EP raise figures to get hands like K9o, 76o and 64s out, then raising from EP makes much more sense. Now, with a reasonable chance to have the best hand preflop AND a reasonable chance to still have the best hand on the flop with just AK high, it makes sense to raise. Still, don't do all the time for your opponents will "put" you on it and will try to bluff you out or outplay you. In a tight game, raise with AK in EP about 50% of the time and in short-handed raise with it about 70-80% of the time. Specifically, if you notice your opponent behind you itching for his chips, then don't raise. If it looks like nobody wants to play anyway, then raise. Keep in mind that an AK is essentially an blind-stealer; you really are not interested to see a flop at all. You are perfectly happy if everyone folds and you just take down the blinds.

From LP

From LP it becomes correct to raise with AK (if there hasn't been a raise yet) much more often than in EP. Clearly, if there haven't been any limpers yet then raising is the norm. If you are not raising, then you are by defintion slowplaying with a mediocre hand. It could work out very well for you and it could not. The general rule, however, is "don't slowplay unless your hand is very strong". Therefore, if you are the first one in, in LP, you should raise 90-95% of the time. In fact, even if you think your opponent has a pocket pair it is still okay to raise since you will beat him about 45% of the time and you now have poition over him.

What about when there have been several limpers ahead of you? I still don't like to raise with this hand most of the time especially if some good players have limped. Odds are that these good players are holding pocket pairs or big cards like you. If they are holding big cards, then you are favored over them and you very possibly have them dominated. But what about the weak players? They could be holding anything and the fact the good player is holding cards of similar rank to you only hurts you in a multi-way pot where you have to improve and you are playing with semi-dead cards. Therefore our advice is to raise from LP against a big field about 50% of the time. AK suited is an exception: if you have AK suited, raise with it 80-90% of the time. Even though your chances are actually making the flush are slim, there's a good chance that somebody else is in there with a weaker flush draw and he will lose many bets to you if the flush comes. Also, if you hit the flush draw on the flop, you can play it much more effectively from LP after having raised preflop (regardless of whether you actually get there or not).