Playing AK aka Big Slick

I would have to rank AK as one of the hardest hands to play
in poker. It can require finesse, brute force,
and foresight to play. Why? When it hits
it will take some finesse to extract the most you can with it, when it misses
it will take brute strength to win with it and foresight because you will have
to be able to see that it is time to let it go.

AKo is the 9^th best starting hand in poker and AKs
is the 5^th best. When you get down to it though, there are just
DRAWING hands. This means if they miss
and you do not improve, you do not want to see a river with them must of the
time. It’s a reason why it is call big
slick, it can be a monster of a hand but remember that starting out, it is just
a drawing hand they needs improvement to win at the river.

So, being that these hands needs help to win, you should
play it passively and try to see a cheap flop right? Wrong! These hands need little opponents to
increase their chance of winning. Here
are a couple examples:

AKo is 65.4% chance of winning heads up but 32.4% chance
with 4 players in the hand.

AKs is 67.0% chance of winning heads up but 35.4% chance
with 4 players in the hand.

Preflop both of these hands should be played aggressively to
try and eliminate as many opponents as you can to increase your chance of
winning. Hopefully after showing some
preflop aggression on PokerStars.com and you are left with only a couple players to see the flop
with. On the flop is where the finesse, brute force and foresight come in. I
will try to keep it general and get more indebt in later articles about how to
play in certain positions.

If you missed the flop completely, and are first to act or it
is checked to you and you are first to bet:

Place a bet out to see where you stand on Bodog. You can then make a decision based on how
they are playing back at you. If you are re-raised you then can figure you are
behind lay it down or if you know anything about the player you are against,
use that to decide to continue on. You may hit your hand later or buy the pot
with your continued betting. (brute
force)

If you missed the flop completely, and someone has bet in
front of you. Raise. You showed preflop
strength, no need to back off now. Again
brute force may carry the day here, at worst you are gathering information and
only good can come out of it. First, you
could get re-raised and safely lay the hand down, second, you get called and
get a checked to on the turn and now you have many options and three, you get
called and bet out at again on the turn which you can now safely lay down if
you missed again.

Remember to have the foresight to lay the hand down if you
miss completely and are bet at. No need
to loose chips chasing a hand that you may not catch up even if you do
hit. There will be other opportunities.

If you hit the flop I would stay cautiously aggressive and
watch out if there is a flopped draw on the board. Chasers are inevitable so be aware. If you hit a monster, finesse your way to
getting as many chips as possible.
Sometimes this will be hard because the draws AK or AKs can hit are
pretty obvious. Use your best judgment
to extract as many chips as possible.

To me the real strength of AK or AKs is preflop, after the
flop and the rest of the streets, it is pretty easy to figure out where you
stand in the hand. Be careful, it is
easy to fall in love with this hand and has led many to go broke.