Originally posted by Hajler
Hello again, thank you everyone for the advice. ♠_grin:
I have been thinking a lot about playing AK preflop in general lately as I feel I am not playing it optimally in many spots.
I have a question regarding annother preflop spot I see a lot, where I open AK and end up getting squeezed by a tight/nit regular in LP or the blinds. Against an agressive reg who is capable of making moves I can ship it no problem, but what about against really tight ABC mass-tablers? If they only 3-bet QQ+ AK then I only have like 40% equity, and since I usually have only put like 3bb into the pot can I just fold here or is that too weak? I call sometimes but I think it is kind of stupid because even if I hit the flop I will still lose my stack to AA or KK, and if they don't have either of those hands I would be better off shipping preflop because I won't get any money out them if Im actually ahead. How do you guys treat AK preflop?
If somebody really only reraises you with QQ+ and AK folding is ok because we don't have implieds (he b/folds QQ on K high and A high boards and will stack us on Khigh boards with KK and AA, so there are only reverse implied odds).
Otherwise vs a tight (but not supertight) range you can usually not 4bet (4bet means 4bet/call since we're committed), but you can call.
The reason is that he might very well squeeze AQ, AJ etc. but would obviously fold it to a 4bet whereas you can stack him on A high boards and even call a bet and perhaps get to SD with the best A-high hand on Thigh and lower boards.
Btw this applies mostly IP, OOP I'd usually still just 4bet and get it in because it's hard (if not impossible) to make this a +EV call being OOP.
Also this is a bit off-topic, but when making a 5-bet after getting 4-bet to say ~25bb, do you raise to ~50bb or shove straight away? Does raising to 50 look stronger or more like a bluff?
I usually just shove it in although there are regs who 5bet smaller. Imo it's very opponent-dependant. After all once you make it 50BB you're commited with any2 (even 72o), so theoretically the 50BB bet is the same as a shove.
So the only reason for making it 50BB would be if you think the opponent percepts the smaller bet in a way that would lead him to make a mistake (i.e. shove when you're strong or fold when you're bluffing).
Notice that if you decide to 5betbluff to 50BB it doesn't make your bluff any cheaper because you have to call 100% of the time regardless of your hand, and the opponent is in a shove or fold scenario.
Thanks again!
P.S.: I apologize for the inconvenience caused by long delays of my answerts over the holidays.
There was a lot of rl-stuff going on with family and friends (and no, I didn't just grind all the time,
in fact I played a total of 102 hands over the last 14 days ♦).
As of today my schedule (hopefully) is back to normal.
Best regards,
Phil
