AK in Raised LHE Pots

**mxp2004** · 07-06-2005

Girevik started a post recently about whether to raise with AK in LHE against a bunch of limpers. I'd like to solicit opinions on how to play AK in a raised pot in LHE.

Recently, when I have been dealt AK in limit hold'em and the pot has already been raised, I have been re-raising and making it 3 bets to go. I've done so with the intent of foreclosing any more callers (who'd have to call 3 bets cold) and possibly losing any pre-raise limpers who may be in the pot (who'd have to call 2 more bets).

I have to say that I have been singularly unsuccessful in this strategy. Much to my surprise, I have routinely been called by one or more players who have yet to act, and the re-raise rarely deters any pre-existing limpers from coming along. The result has been that I have done no more than create a huge preflop pot that provides more than sufficient odds for chasing most draws.

In addition, I don't think that I have won many of these pots. Because so many players have called, it is often the case that many of my outs (Aces and Kings) are in other players' hands. Thus, unless the flop presents a straight or flush draw for me, I often have to release the hand to avoid losing additional bets to a weak overcall.

One final piece of information: I've had this experience with re-raising AK in both live games up to $6/$12 and on-line games up to $.25/$.50. So, as usual, we're discussing strategy in low-stakes games.

So the question is whether routinely re-raising AK is the proper preflop strategy in LHE?

**Beavis68** · 07-06-2005

SSH says to play just as you do.

This is how I play it too at the lower limits. You won't win a lot of pot multi-way, but the ones you win will be big. You are forcing your opponents to make some pretty big mistakes pre-flop.

Any time tables are this aggressive, I would expect your variance to be huge.

You know I play low limits, but I have 6300 hands from 0.05/0.1 to .5/1. At my typical levels I am 2.5BB/hand with AK but will all limits I am 2. My PFR is 99% and my VPIP is 100%, so I never limped with it. For 61hands.

My win rate is 60.1% which has to be ridiculously high.

**masterread** · 07-06-2005

3 betting pre flop with AK is the right thing to do, you shouldnt cold call pre flop with AK let alone anything.

**Kliph** · 07-06-2005

With AKo, I usually re-raise preflop. However if I feel that the re-raise won't deter callers and just end up building a big pot (like you stated) I will just call.

I alosr like re-raising with AK because this action usually screams AA or KK to most players. And, it also shows that you are willing to re-raise with hands other than those.

In Limit, I treat AKs just like AA or KK.

**SteveY** · 07-06-2005

Originally Posted by Beavis68

You are forcing your opponents to make some pretty big mistakes pre-flop.

Listen to beavis

**Steve Ruddock** · 07-06-2005

If someone raises and there are 3 callers to you I would simply call, otherwise I'm reraising.

The key is to play it well post flop. By this I mean not calling with just overs when there are 4 callers preflop.

Beavis is right on here, make them make mistakes preflop and then avoid your own post flop mistakes. You'll also be able to define the original raisers hand depending on whether he just calls or re-raises.

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