AK and QQ Preflop at the Low Limits (1) - Basic Ideas

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AK and QQ Preflop at the Low Limits (1) - Basic Ideas

by MiiWiin

These two starting hands always pose a lot of problems, in particular for beginners. Especially in the low limits, the decision to always go broke with these hands preflop seems to be rather uncommon. We will therefore introduce you to some basic ideas today that will help you base your future decisions on your own knowledge rather than on a chart, which does not take into account individual game situations.

Always go broke preflop – why?

Most tips for playing these hands boil down to the same thing: You will rarely make a big mistake as long as you play these hands aggressively. This means you should always raise and try to go broke preflop.

This is what most of the content at PokerStrategy.com, including the chart, recommend. And this recommendation is correct: You will make fewer mistakes in the long term.

It is every poker player's goal to make as few mistakes as possible and to force the opponents into mistakes at the same time. This may sound easy, but it certainly isn't.

If somebody tells you not to always go broke with these hands, this does not have to be wrong either. But what are your alternatives? Should you raise your hand and fold to a 3-bet? Should you 3-bet but fold to a 4-bet? Should you 4-bet and fold to a push? Have you thought about any of these lines yet?

Or should you play passively? Is it better to only call a 3-bet or a 4-bet? Are there alternatives to playing fast and aggressively?

Of course there are alternatives, and just because you would make fewer mistakes by playing aggressively, it does not mean that a different way of playing could not be the better option.

However, a chart can never ultimately tell you which is the best decision in a specific situation. Remember the old poker saying "...it always depends..." - it also applies in these spots.

Therefore, the previous general advice to always go broke with these hands preflop is the simple option. Similar to the chart, it is only a general recommendation and can therefore not be perfect for every situation (since it does not and cannot take into consideration individual player types). However, it will guarantee that you make fewer mistakes at the beginning of your career than you would without it.

Your own skill and your opponents' skill

As mentioned before, a generally aggressive game is an easy game. If you want to advise someone on how to play heads-up against Phil Ivey: Simply push every Ax hand and every pocket pair all-in, fold everything else. In the long run, this will be the most profitable course of action for this player.

On the contrary, it simply cannot be a good recommendation to call marginal hands out of position in order to get an edge on Mr. Ivey postflop.

As your play becomes better and you gain more experience, become stronger postflop and improve your ability to assess your opponents, you will be able to integrate alternative lines in your play sooner.

Can you call a 3-bet with AK or QQ? Sure you can, but the question is what you make of it postflop.

Look at this hand, which is similar to one that was posted in the forum some time ago:

PartyPoker $10 NL Hold'em (10-handed)

Stacks & Stats
UTG ($10)
UTG+1 ($10)
UTG+2 ($10)
MP ($10)
MP1 ($10)
MP2 ($10)
CO ($10)
BU ($10)
SB ($10)
Hero ($10)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q , Q
5 folds, MP2 raises to $0.40, 1 fold, BU raises to $1.20, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.20, MP2 calls $1.20

Flop: ($3.65) A, K, 4 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP checks, BU bets $3.00, Hero calls $3.00, MP2 folds

Turn: ($9.65) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $5.80 (All-in), Hero calls $5.80

The following comment was posted about the hand in question:

“Preflop, I did not want to isolate myself against KK+, the flop wasn't any good, but he doesn't necessarily have to have AK and the board has made KK+ less likely. On top of that, I had a backdoor flush. On the turn, I was pretty much commited to the pot."

This hand illustrates the difficulty of such situations as explained above. The preflop decision did not even consider the fact that you will find yourself in a very dire situation if you have to play this hand out of position against two unknown players in a 3-bet pot.

At first glance, this play might seem weak. But is it really weak to call loosely preflop and to play way ahead - way behind on an AKx flop?

A basic principle (for every hand) is as follows: Before you make a decision preflop, make sure that you can master the postflop situation it will put you in.

So how do you play the hand correctly? This is nearly impossible. It would certainly be the most sensible option to simply check/fold the flop. It does not make any sense to only call preflop in order to induce bluffs on such a board.

In the above example, it is more than likely that Hero has invested his "last 88 big blinds (!)" with the weaker hand.

There is another thing you can be sure about: He would have made a much smaller mistake or even no mistake at all if he had played 4-bet/broke preflop or if he had folded directly.

We are of course not trying to underestimate your skill. However, we are talking about the low limits here and if you are interested in this topic, you are probably still at the beginning of your career. Therefore we assume that you neither have a big edge nor a lot of playing experience yet.

However, the main focus here is not on you. You need to analyse your opponents. How do you figure out which hands your opponents might play?

Players often don't have any stats or useful reads, but simply "know" that the opponent only 3-bets the range XY and 4-bets the range YZ. However, the opponent will still fold some hands from YZ.

How do they know this? By making such guesses, it is very easy to justify just about any line.

“My opponent 3-bets every crap hand and calls 4-bets with many hands, but only goes broke with AA. Therefore, I can 4-bet/fold AK..."

The problem is: The basic idea behind this statement is right. If you base your decisions on these assumptions, 4-bet/fold is indeed the right choice against these ranges. But will your opponent stick to it? Will he really call AQ/AJ to a 4-bet, but only pushes with his aces? In most cases, there aren't even any reliable stats on this. You have to question whether these are sensible assumptions in the first place.

Since most NL10 players will have less training than you, you cannot expect too much from them. These players will hardly know what a range is and tend to play rather randomly. When will such a player ever fold AK preflop?

Equity - How do you make profit with AK?

“If I go all-in with AK, I'll usually be behind..."

This is certainly correct.

	Equity	Win	Split	Loss	Hand
Player 1	38.824%	18.145%	41.359%	40.496%	A K
Player 2	61.176%	40.496%	41.359%	18.145%	QQ+, AKs, AKo

	Equity	Win	Split	Loss	Hand
Player 1	43.242%	43.031%	0.422%	56.547%	A K
Player 2	56.758%	56.547%	0.422%	43.031%	QQ

	Equity	Win	Split	Loss	Hand
Player 1	47.351%	47.042%	0.617%	52.341%	A K
Player 2	52.649%	52.341%	0.617%	47.042%	22

It is out of the question that you prefer to go broke preflop with aces or kings rather than with AK. But AK as well as queens have to be played as well.

In the long run, you will still make profit with these hands. As you can see above, you will rarely be a big underdog. But where do you get your profit from?

• You raise, all opponents fold.
• You 3-bet, all opponents fold.
• You 4-bet, all opponents fold.
• You push, all opponents fold.

You will make profit simply by being aggressive. Now we need to ask: Can't I also play AT, 45s or 72o like that?

No, you can't - your AK would still be quite good if your all-in gets called. You can go ahead and use the Equilator to enter these hands against the ranges above. You will see the differences.

No unnecessary 3 bets or 4 bets – if you play passively, do it right

What are your alternatives? Let's look at an example:

PartyPoker $10 NL Hold'em (10-handed)

Stacks & Stats
UTG ($10)
UTG+1 ($10)
UTG+2 ($10)
MP ($10)
MP1 ($10)
MP2 ($10) (Read: TAG)
CO ($10)
BU ($10)
SB ($10)
Hero ($10)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q , Q
5 folds, MP2 raises to $0.40, 3 folds, Hero raises to $1.30, MP2 raises to $3.00, Hero folds

The player commented: ”A standard 3-bet preflop, but after the 4-bet I saw myself behind against the TAG."

Is that the case? Here's another important thing to remember: There are no standard plays in No Limit Hold'em.

So why is this a standard 3-bet? Is it a value 3-bet? Will Villain call weaker hands?

This is simply his assumption. But do you really know if Villain will simply call JJ- here or that he will never 4-bet? Or that he might even fold AK?

No, you don't know this and without any specific reads, which are nearly impossible for the low limits as mentioned above, nobody does.

So, how did the above 3-bet help you? Where is the value? You could theoretically play 3-bet/fold here with any 2.

And this is where two important aspects come together: In the second example, Hero thinks he should 3-bet since this might be easier to do than to call out of position. He thinks however that only stronger hands will 4-bet.

The TAG is a player who always plays AK, for example, aggressively. Where does he get his profit from again? He gets it from players folding to 3-bets, 4-bets and even pushes? Correct.

What you should avoid is many spots in which you play 3-bet/fold. In such spots, you could also consider a simple call. It's a fact: If you call, you will make a smaller mistake (if one at all) than if you play 3-bet/fold. You are the big blind, you are last to act and there is no reason why you should play 3-bet/fold here.

Your options in the spot above would therefore be to call or to play 3-bet/push.

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