Just to get a feeling where people stand on this fairly elementary issue that have many differing opinions.

How do you play AK?
What situations vary your play with AK and most importantly, why?

I'm not asking how you think it should be played or how you that it should be played. This thread is about how you actually play it and what you think when you see it.

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Way, way to general. Preflop, on the flop? Specific questions are better if you ask them.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

Limit:

I always open raise or 3-bet from any position. If its 3 bets to me I'll probly cap or fold. Never call with it. If its 4 bets to me I'll muck it even sooted. If I flop an A or K i'll almost always bet and 3bet if i get raised. If it gets capped I generally check/call down or muck the turn player dependent.

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

In limit I always raise with it, in NL I either 3-5x bet it or all-in.

IF there is a big raise and call or reraise to me though, I dump it. At least one person has some of my outs.

preflop:
early position - raise 4x blinds , if im reraised ill either reraise or fold depending
middle position - facing a raise, i would just call because i want to play a multi way pot here. Limped to me, ill raise 4x-6x blinds.
late position - a few limpers, ill raise 6x blinds - if its raised to me, ill usually reraise but it all depends on size of raise and other information i have- many limpers , 6x-8x blinds

post flop it varies so much that its kind of tough to explain how i play it.

"helmuth" is kind of getting where I want to go with it and bonch, it is very general because it's meant to be responded to situationally. What are the situations that shape the way that you play it or do you play like Aces as many people do and what flops, people, or position shape that way that you play this hand?

There is no perfect way to play this hand and there aren't many right ways to play in many situations. I constantly see people who play it too conservatively play it too aggressively later and vice versa. I'm wondering what people think they have, on a relative basis, when they look down and see AK.

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I think as has been said that the answer is "it depends".

But in general I raise 3-4x bb and hope for a call and to hit the flop or for all limpers to fold and take the blinds (and I say to myself, better to win a little than lose a lot)

If I'm reraised it can lead to going out to a pocket pair on a coinflip and I try to avoid situations that lead to coinflips for more than a third of my stack.

The best "it depends" for AK is when there's a couple of people at the table who rate AJ and A10 too highly and raise into me , in that circumstance, sometimes I'll push.

Though I don't mind letting AK go if it's looking like I'm going to have to hit the flop hard to win the pot.

AQ is the one that I have more trouble with.

Why? If you do flop an A or a K with 6 people in the pot how often is it the best hand? In NL at least I like to make a raise here and generally fold to a limp-reraise from UTG or UTG+1

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann

all in

So many people that think they know how to play poker cuz they watch WPT. You're in a terrible situation if you push here with 6 people. You will win the pot quite a few times, but when you do get called you will be drawing close to dead (set or betteR)

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“There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.” - John von Neumann