Poker Strategy

1. It "dominates" any other hand that contains an A or K. Since players
are likely to play a hand that contains an A or K, you are a big
favorite over them if they do decide to play such a hand against you. They
will almost certainly pay you off if the A or K falls and neither one of
you catches further help and it might cost your opponent quite a few chips
if he's aggressive.

2. Your kicker will ALLWAYS play when you have AK even when there's a pair on board. If you have AQ and there's an AK and a pair on board, your kicker no longer plays.

	You	Opponent
Hole Cards
Chances of winning preflop	74%	26%
The Flop
Chances of winning on the flop	87.3%	12.7%
The Board:
Final Hand	You play AATTK	Your opponent plays AATTQ

3. It is a quite a favorite over any hand that does contain a pair (but
is not dominated- such as QJ). Since you have the two biggest cards in
the deck you have to work alot less to make a hand than your opponent
does. If you catch an A or a K on the flop or beyond, your opponent will
then have to make two-pair or better to beat you. They will often pay
you off with their smaller pair. If they are lucky and catch two-pair,
you still might get lucky and hit your kicker to make the nut two-pair
and proceed to consume many of your opponent's chips in the process.
Also, the board might pair up to beat any two smaller pair (split) with
kings up or aces up.

	You	Opponent
Hole Cards
Chances of winning preflop	64.1%	35.9%
The flop
chances of winning on the flop	81.6%	18.4%
The Board:
Final Hand	You play AAKJT	Your opponent plays JJAQT

3. It has a decent chance of beating ANY pocket pair lower than kings.
With two overcards to your opponent's pocket pair, you are never worse
than a 45% underdog preflop to hit your A or K on the flop or beyond
thereby beating your opponents pockets. If is therefore, relatively easy
for you to beat your opponent's pockets but your opponent will have a
very tough time catching that elusive two-outer set to beat your TPTK if
you hit it. Sometimes, they will pay you off all the way. Sometimes,
they will play hoping to catch the set and fold on the turn or river and
sometimes they will be doing the betting with the best hand on the flop
and you will catch your A or K on the turn or river.

	You	Opponent
Hole Cards
Chances of winning preflop	42.5%	57.5%
The flop
chances of winning on the flop	91.2%	8.8%
The Board:
Final Hand	You play AAK97	Your opponent plays TTA97

4. Small pocket pairs have the additional chance of getting beat by the
mere presence of two bigger pair on board. However, in this case, the
AK will be forced to share the pot with any other opponent holding an A.
Therefore, a good play you can make with AK is to raise on the flop or
turn if there is a pair on board and you are to the immediate left of
your opponent who you think is betting with a weaker ace. Once the
pocket pair folds to your raise (afraid of the overcards and the paired
board) you can win the showdown unimproved without a bet as long as your
opponent doesn't catch a miracle card.

	You	Opponent
Hole Cards
Chances of winning preflop	45.0%	55.0%
The flop
chances of winning on the flop	62.2%	37.8%
The Board:
Final Hand	You play 7766A	Your opponent plays 77665

5. In the rare case that a four-flush appears on board, your AK will be
the nuts or second-nuts if one of your cards match that suit.

	You	Opponent 1	Opponent 2	Opponent 3
Hole Cards
Chances of winning preflop	24.3%	11.8%	4.6%	59.3%
The flop
chances of winning on the flop	20.0%	34.9%	43.1%	2.0%
The turn:
	15.0%	22.5%	62.5%	0.0%
the river
Final Hand	You play K9753 flush	Opponent 1 plays 555J9 (trips)	Opponent 2 plays JT975 flush	Opponent 3 plays Q9753 flush

You might get paid off on the river by all three players.

6. It is the nut no-pair hand. As long as your opponent/s do not hold
pocket pairs you have the winner preflop and you will remain the winner
as long as noone improves. Your opponent/s will only pair up (or
better) on the flop 32.4% of the time. The rest of the time, you will win by
default. Often you can tell whether your opponent has paired up on the
flop by making some simple assumptions about your opponent (if you know
how he plays). If he has cold-called your raise and the flop is three
rags such as 237, you know he didn't call you with one of those. If he
does not have pockets, you are the winner.

	You	Opponent
Hole Cards
Chances of winning preflop	61.1%	38.9%
The flop
chances of winning on the flop	61.2%	38.8%
The Board:
Final Hand	You play TTAKJ	Your opponent plays TTQJ9

7. If any two broadway cards appear on flop (other than A/K) you have
10 outs against any pocket pair and against anyone holding a pair whose
kicker is not an A or K, four of them giving you the nuts. That's
almost 1/4 of the deck.

For example: you have AK vs Q9 and 44 and the flop is QJ3. There are a
total of 43 unseen cards. Total possible combinations for the last two
cards C(43,2)=903. Combinations that do not contain one of ten cards
that help you are C(33,2)=528. 903-528=375 of these combinations will
give you a potential winner. However, 42 of these combinations include a
card that helps your opponent. They are as follows: (A9-9, A4-6, K9-9,
K4-6, AQ-6, KQ-6). 375-42=333. Any of these 333 combonations will give
you the winner. 333/903 = .37 giving a 37% chance of winning. You will
allways have correct pot odds to stay in to the end with such good odds.

	You	Opponent 1	Opponent 2
Hole Cards
Chances of winning preflop	39.7%	29.6%	30.7%
The flop
chances of winning on the flop	36.9%	54.8%	8.3%
The Board:
Final Hand	You play KKAQJ	Oopponent 1 plays QQKJ9	Opponent 2 plays 44KQJ

The Dangers of AK:

1. Any pocket pair has you beat and is usually a slight favorite
preflop and a heavy favorite after the flop if you don't catch help. You will
not catch any pair-or-better on the flop 67.6% of the time. You will
therefore have to try to bluff your opponent out, fold or continue
calling with a hand that is a heavy underdog.

2. Of course, the real danger the pockets pose is the possibility of
making a set. If they do make a set on the flop or beyond, you almost
have no chance of winning. Yet, if you did hit your pair, you feel very
strong with TPTK and this strength might cost you quite a decent size of
your stack. The sad part is that if you don't have two-pair or trips on
the turn, you are drawing dead but you feel compelled to pay him off,
thereby costing you two big-sized bets with a dead hand. Furthermore, if
you do have trips on the turn, you don't have the usual 21.7% chance of
filling up (as in stud-10 out of 46) since your opponent's trip rank is
tied up. You only have 7 outs out of 44 cards, giving you only a 15.9%
chance of winning.

3. Unlike a pocket pair, AK is not a made hand and any hand that is NOT
dominated by yours has a decent chance (32.4%) of catching a pair on
the flop to beat your AK. You will then have to try to bluff your
opponent out which is quite tough to do, call as an underdog or fold with
shame as your opponent has just beat your AK with trash.

4. If your opponent does share your A or K as the kicker for the
miracle pair he has just caught, you virtually have only three outs instead
of six. You are now drawing very slim and you have to fold immediately
but you don't allways know that. If you do cal and eventuall catch the
wrong pair, it'll cost you a fortune.

5. If there is a lot of action preflop, the AK decreases significantly
in value since it makes it very likely that your opponents are playing
hands that contains an A or K or even both. If that is the case, your
cards are dead and you are therefore less likely to catch any help on
the flop or beyond and you will almost certainly need some help in order
to win in a multi-way pot. Furthermore, there is allways the rare
possibility that you are holding a dominated hand, being up against AA or
KK.