Say you're on Party $25, with about $25, and a tight aggressive player in EP makes her standard raise to $3, which means AA-TT, AK, or AQ. How do you play AK in LP here? Do you reraise while it's cheap, or call and see what flops? If you call, you're almost certainly facing a pot sized bet.

A few other details would help here - namely what is the size of her stack?

I think you need to ask yourself what does re-raising here accomplish? If you re-raise and continue the hand past the flop - you've given yourself no folding equity. Also how big would you raise - your probably not going to raise so much that she will fold so at best it gives you a free card on the flop should you miss, worst case she pushes all in.

Given how you've described this player, your more than likely behind at the current moment. Calling and seeing the flop is probably here is a wise move. No A or K, fold it and wait for a better spot.

Me personally - with no one else in the pot - I would consider folding here. With Party's structure and I'm just at a buy-in, I like to win a series of small pots and work myself up to $35-$45 before I start calling raises from solid players. But that's me....

Say you're on Party $25, with about $25, and a tight aggressive player in EP makes her standard raise to $3, which means AA-TT, AK, or AQ. How do you play AK in LP here? Do you reraise while it's cheap, or call and see what flops? If you call, you're almost certainly facing a pot sized bet.

Well unless she gets more than 2 callers she will be betting pot no matter what. I know because this is how I play on Party $25's.

If not I personally see no reason to tangle with her with a drawing hand. Unless she has AQ then I am behind and I've no money committed to the pot now. There are easier players to take money from and easier ways to take money from her (best way is that if she always raises her good hands, just raise her whenever she limps and you have position on her and a decent hand)

However some tight aggressives do have one weak spot - to maximise their money at the Party NL tables they sometimes bet out only when they don't have anything and check or purposefully underbet the pot if they do - so they can come over the top if the LP bets back at them. If she has this tell, it might be worth taking a pop, especially if there is another caller or two and you hit the flop.

I don't think you should cold call in these circumstances (though this is what I've always done), in particular if the opponent will bet the pot regardless of the flop.

Assuming your strategy is to get your stack into the middle if you hit, and fold if you miss (is there any other way to play it with $25 behind and $6 in the middle before the flop?):

(1) Against QQ, JJ, TT (36 combos) you're -ve/= EV:
A/K flops, opponent misses set (30%): +$9
A/K flops, opponent has set (3%): -$25
You miss (67%): -3$
Total EV = -$0.10

(2) Against AA (6 combos) and KK (6 combos) you're obviously in bad shape if you hit the flop
I calculate the EV as -$7.8 for AA and -$2.5 for KK

(3) Against AK (18 combos) you're -ve EV since 78% of the time you have to fold, the rest of the time you chop
I calculate the EV as -$2.3

(4) Against AQ (24 combos) you're ahead, but not massively, since 75% of the time you have to fold (you both miss), and you only get their stack if an A flops and a Q doesn't hit.
I calculate the EV as +$0.42

For what it's worth, the small (10s) of AK hands with which I've cold called in my PT database have been -ve EV: what are other people's experiences?

Aside from folding (certainly not the worst move!), how about reraising to $8 and moving in on any flop (unless bet into, and possibly unless a Q but no K flops)? I think you can probably fold to a pre-flop reraise without losing too much EV.

Haven't done the sums, but unless your opponent is very aggressive, that ought to give you the advantage if your opponent has AK, JJ, or TT.

That said, I'm going to start folding this for the moment!

Gnosis, she has you covered and there are no other callers.

In the actual hand, I called, flopped a K, and raised her $6 bet to $16. I'm ahead of most of here holdings (no T, J, or Q on board), but I've committed most of my stack without narrowing down where I stand. It got me to wondering if there was a better way (or perhaps, as excession says, maybe I shouldn't bother with this hand at all).

She ended up folding.

I disagree. If the opponent will bet any flop (which the majority do), then Im calling her raise. If an ace or king hits I will call or raise depending on the board and the opponent.