Thought I'd post some excerpts from my book on starting hands, and pre-flop play, and see if we can get a discussion going, I'll post our hotly debated AK along with AQ, AJ, and AT. any thoughts or critiques are welcome.



AKs and AK - AK is a hand that should always be raised. The suited aspect of this hand only adds approximately 4% to your winning percentage but that 4% of the time you have big hand potential where someone else with 3 of a kind or a smaller flush will pay you off nicely.

The main reasons to raise AK are;

• You really want to limit the field with this hand, even though you have the flush potential when it’s suited the main reason to play this hand is the top pair top kicker potential. When you have AK the flop will contain an Ace or a King 27% of the time. You want people holding hands like 78s to fold so they will not hit 2 pair on a flop of A78 which will cost you many bets. if you do not raise you will have a hard time putting people on a hand.

• You also want to gather information with this hand, if you raise and are called by 2 players you can be pretty sure no one has AA or KK, most players re-raise with these hands, therefor if you flop an Ace or a King you can be sure you have top pair and are not against a set of Aces or Kings. If a player re-raises, AA or KK now becomes a possibility and that extra small bet pre-flop may save you 2 or 3 big bets post-flop.

• AK also dominates many hands looser or weaker players will call a raise with AQ, AJ, AT, KQ, etc. you want these hands to call your raise so when you share the Ace or the King on the board you have the better kicker and they will pay you off all the way with their top pair lesser kicker.

• Winning percentage vs a random hand, AK off-suit 65%, AK suited 67%
• Winning percentage vs a top 40 type hand, AK off-suit 59%, AK suited 61%
• Winning percentage vs 3 top 40 type hands, AK off-suit 31%, AK suited 35%
• Big hand potential on the flop for AK off-suit - 3 of a kind/full house/straight 2%,
• Big hand potential on the flop for AK suited - 3 of a kind/full house/straight/flush 3%

As you can see AK does not have a large big hand potential but does do well against a 1-3 opponents. This hand is played for hitting top pair and will therefor fair better against fewer opponents.

When a player raises in front of you it is very important that you know this persons raising standards, if they are loose you should re-raise, if they are tight you should fold unless you are receiving good odds to flat call. If they are in between loose and tight you will have to use all the information available to you to make the best decision.


Big Aces, AQ, AJ - These hands are played to hit top pair with top kicker (TPTK). When most of your best case scenarios are flopping top pair you would like fewer opponents in the pot since top pair is a vulnerable hand and you do not want a lot of people chasing hands. Because of this you should normally raise these hands if it will eliminate opponents and also to show strength which will allow you to bluff or semi-bluff ragged flops when you only have 1 or 2 opponents.

there are 3 scenarios where a big Ace plays very well

• When there are 1-3 loose limpers. When loose players limp into a pot a hand such as AQ or AJ will either have them dominated if they have a weaker Ace (since a loose player will typically raise AJ-AK you can be fairly certain you have the best Ace) or make top pair if you hit your other card (again it is very unlikely a loose player would limp with a pair of Jacks or higher). Basically if you hit your hand more times than not you will be ahead.

• When you can isolate a loose raiser. When you know a player has very loose raising standards you can attempt to eliminate all of the other players by 3 betting with these hands allowing you to play heads up against what should be an inferior hand.

• When you are opening the pot from middle or late position. In this situation you are looking to win the blinds uncontested but are not unhappy when someone calls since you have a very good chance to win a heads up situation with these hands.

Suited big Aces also play very well in multi-player pots. Unsuited big Aces do not play as well because they have less big hand potential, and with 5+ players in a pot TPTK is not a guaranteed winner, especially in a raised pot. The big hand potential that goes with the suited Aces makes them very playable in these situations and you should often raise or re-raise them in these situations as well.

Big Aces do not play well when a decent player has raised from early position, you’re hand is at the bottom end of the spectrum of hands he would be raising with. The only hand I would consider playing in this situation is AQs.

If a tight player enters the pot from Early Position you also do not want to play a hand like AQ unless you are receiving proper odds. Again AQ rates to be at the bottom end of the hands a tight player would limp in with from Early Position.

You also do not want decent players to call or re-raise you when you raise with a Big Ace. Again your hand is at the bottom of the spectrum that these players will call a raise with and in these situations they also have position over you. You do not mind when loose or bad players call you but you should realize you need a good flop to win if a decent player calls your raise.

AQ and AJ will flop 2 pair or better about 4% of the time and will flop a pair about 27% of the time. With these hands you will be happy with the flop about 1 time in 3. When they are suited you will also flop a 4 flush 11% of the time. There is also a very small chance you will flop a straight.




AT - this hand is actually quite inferior to AQ or AJ. The only time I recommend playing AT is when you can open the pot from middle or late position. ATs can be played in the same situation or when multiple opponents have limped into the pot because of it’s greater big hand potential.

The reasons AT is inferior to AJ and AQ are,

• It is dominated by more hands. AK, AQ, AJ, TT, JJ, QQ, KK, and AA compared to AQ which is dominated by only AK, QQ, KK, and AA.

• It is more unlikely that a Ten will be top pair on the flop than a Jack or Queen.

• It is much more vulnerable to over-cards on the turn and river if you do have a ten high flop.

• Since it is best to raise with this hand it is unlikely that even loose players will call a raise with QT or KT, although some do, as opposed to QJ, KJ, or KQ. This will eliminate a lot of profit from when you share a card with an opponent.

Bear in mind that even though AT has a 3 card gap to make a straight, AJ and AQ also require 3 specific cards to make an Ace high straight giving them the same straight potential. If you feel you need to flop 2 pair or better to beat your opponent AT is just as likely as AQ to make a big hand.

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That is pretty close to how I play, I hate ATo.

I do think that AJ is weaker than AQ, but it is probably not enough to give it's own space.

Nice post, Steve. This was the only sentence where I disagree somewhat with your advice. Even against a tight player who enters the pot for a raise, I don't think that you need to automatically fold. AK is a big dog only to AA and KK. Thus, I read your post as implying that a tight player who enters the pot for a raise is likely to be playing one of those two hands.

If the tight player re-raised from an early position, then I think that AA or KK is a legitimate read. However, if the tight player has merely made a standard raise against a limper or two -- or even more so, if he has merely opened the pot for a standard raise -- then I think a range of other hands are possible, including QQ, JJ, and AQs. Taking into account that you have position on the raiser, I think that you can afford to see a flop and make your best read on the raiser's plays thereafter based upon your knowledge of his style.

It would help if I described a tight player better as I do in the book. basiccally in the book a tight player is a rock, AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQs, JJ, a normal tight player (someone selective) I refer to as a decent player throughout the book.

I would fold AK myself if I knew someone was playing JJ, QQ, KK, AA, AK, or AQs as a range of hands. but I think I should word that sentence to say

A fold may be the best play, instead of you should fold.

thanks for the replies so far, this is the kind of thing I am looking for mxp.

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If I did my math right, that is about a 3.3% PFR. That is fairly tight, but i know people that dont raise AK at all, and my not even raise QQ.

remember the PM - you tell me first when your book is done.

I know that this is an old thread, but I was thinking about the issues that Steve-O raises here while I was a playing a hand at a casino in AC this past weekend. Here was the situation:

The game was $6/$12 Limit. I was in the SB and had . A somewhat loose raiser at UTG+1 raised it before the flop to 2 bets. Everyone folded to the Button, and he re-raised to 3 bets. The action was now up to me.

The Button's re-raise surprised me. He was a solid and very tight player. Over the course of two hours at the table, I had seen him play only a couple of hands. The only hands that I had seen him raise with were KK and AK (he may have raised with others, but I never saw any hands but these).

Thus, while I was not particularly concerned about the initial raiser, I felt that there was a pretty good chance that the Button's bet meant that I was up against AA, KK, or AK, hands that would dominate mine. As a result, I decided to fold rather than call 2.5 bets. The BB also folded, and the original raiser called one more bet for a two-way pot.

As the hand played out, the flop came down King high, with all spades, which would have given me the nuts. At the showdown, the Button showed , something that really surprised me.

While I'm interested in everyone's opinion on whether I played this hand way too tight, I'd like to know what Steve-O thinks of this hand. Would he recommend calling 2.5 bets cold from the SB, particularly where the second raiser is on the tight-end of the spectrum?

I think folding to the 3-bet is pretty standard, especially since the pot looked to be short handed.

Him haveing AQs was about your best case, still doesn't give you much equity.

beavis is spot on here.

you are out of position and your hand is at the very bottom of his raising standards. even worse is that unlike say 88 if you improve you will probably just lose more money since most of the hands he would 3 bet have you dominated.

add in 2 more players and I'd cap it myself but with 2 opponents just fold and give up your 1/2 a SB.

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