Also it’s more easy to stack someone with top pair in a reraised pot than in a raised pot. You can make small and medium pocket pairs fold preflop or on the flop with a cbet. I think in a raised pot with AK you’re dealing with reverse implied odds in case you hit top pair. In a 3bet pot those reverse implied odds are smaller because people stack off lighter.
Originally posted by Jumbles
AK is a hand that works best heads up.
Try equilating AK against one random hand, then add a second and see how your equity changes;
Actually even you will win rarely, it is more profitable to have more people in the pot, in an all-in situation with AK. Let’s say you are playing at a table full of calling stations who are calling an all-in with random hands. You go all-in for $1 with AK and 4 people call you. AKo against 4 random hands has ~36% equity. In a $5 pot you will get $1,80. Your net profit will be 1,80-1=$0,80
If you have only one calling station at the table you will win more often. AK will have a 65% equity against a random hand. In a $2 pot you will get $1,30. But your net profit will only be 1,30-1=$0,30
Of course, this is only available in all-in situations. On today’s online games this will never be the case. In a normal NL game I also prefer a heads up situation. But if I’m playing fixed limit at a full ring table and everyone limps and I’m BB, I will raise for value my AK even if I know nobody will fold. My equity will still be very good.