Ah, AK, it can be the best of hands, it can be the beginning of all that you dream of and if you hold it long enough you can win some monster hands that willelly bite the life out of you. We talk about pre-flop here because it is the foundation stone of any successful poker strategy, the key to no limit hold ’em and to most standard forms of poker. Without this you will leave yourself in the dust and it will be you, or rather the AK, that will take down the pots. When you look at your hand and you see a single ace, a queen, a king, a 4,5,6 and a 7, what do you think? Is this a good hand for me? This is poker and the answer is yes, it is awesome.
Good poker players will enter the pot with any hand they see, given that it is a willing offer. If you are not willing to enter with this hand, then you should not be in the hand. So many hands are lost on the flop, when you are holding an ace, a queen, a king, a 4,5, 6, 7 or an ace and a 6. Once again, many hands are lost on the flop when you have aces, which is the reason why you see so many players who chase aces, which of course, disappoints you.
When you are holding an ace and bet, you will see a lot of flops. The ace can be played small, big, fast, slow, loose, solid and it will always result in a lot of different results. Against loose players, you will win a lot of small pots because they will think you have great cards all of the time. If you have a great hand, you will draw the best cards and they will not fear you, therefore, they will not call you with their monster hands, unless they have something too.
They may call you with a 6 when you have an ace, but they will fear your bet and they will fold when you have a great hand. If you bet with a 6 after someone raises the ace, you will probably get a call, but I bet you will get a re-raise. Against tight players, you can steal a lot of pots because they will call you to the river with their suited king, queen, and jack cards because they are afraid of what you have.
This brings the point that AK suited is a hand that you will want to play in a lot of pots because you can steal blinds and antes. However, when you play AK unsuited, you are a lot better off getting in the habit of seeing a flop and calling rather than raising hands pre-flop because you are so sure you have the best hand.
To sum up, AK suited is a powerful drawing hand that wins a lot of small pots without seeing the flop because people are scared off by the ace and they think you have a top pair
It’s a great hand so that’s why it loves to see the flop. When it starts to come, however, watch out because a lot of beginning players have a hard time letting go of the hand when they haven’t made a pair and the first card is an ace. Chances are they will be wrong and it will be there to punish them for continuing to play a hand they think to be trash.
When you decide to play AK suited, remember to always watch for the beginning players who do not play a lot of hands and the ones who go to the Sidney Pools. These are usually the types of cards you want to target. AK suited can be a calling hand if you hit your set, but if you don’t, the best you can hope for is to get paid off for essentially the value of a pair of aces.