Here IMO postflop is standard, and I think that a bet in the end is very stndard too. OP is short and Ax makes a great part of his range, so pushing is better. What is much less standard is preflop. That's why I concentrated on it more. I agree that occasionally one can limp with AK, I guess one could consider limping with AA from time to time, to mix it up. But IMO a stndard line with AK is to raise, and being standard it means that one raises it like 90% of time. From Electrolux post, I had the impression (and from his stats too) that he rarely raises AK from the blinds. I think that it is a big leak, that's why I concentrated on it.
To add a bit to discussion of limping vs raising AK preflop.
First, it is simply theoretically correct, AKo will often be the best hand preflop and we want to put money in when we are ahead.
Second, AKo plays much better in HU pots, rather than multiway. If you are HU and flop TPTK it is very rarely that someone outflops you, so in HU pot you are mostly good. In multiway pots TPTK becomes marginal OOP. Moreover after raising preflop and taking the flop HU you are very likely to take it with a CB. If flops comes
![[2h]](https://livepokerforum.com/images/smilies/2h.gif "The Two of Hearts")
![[8c]](https://livepokerforum.com/images/smilies/8c.gif "The Eight of Clubs")
![[Qc]](https://livepokerforum.com/images/smilies/Qc.gif "The Queen of Clubs")
one should make a CB in HU pot rather often, and one will take it a very large % of time.And finally, let's consider a situation when CO limps, Button limps with 97o, and you have AKo in BB.
We will look at this with Button vs BB perspective, ignoring CO for simplicity. (I choose this one because I could find myself on both sides and it is interesting for anlysis.)
A. Raise preflop.
Now, If you raise preflop a likely outcome is that CO folds, Button folds and you take the pot, which is great. If Button decides to call he will make a major preflop mistake that will be difficult to repair postflop. BB needs one card A or K to make a strong hand, while Button needs 2. I mean that for BB the problematic flops are 77K, 79K, 86A. While on most of the flops that hit both like K95, or hit no one Q83 BB is not in trouble and will take it with a CB or if Button decides to float with a middle pair BB wins even more.There is of course some room for postflop play, I even think that against against aggresive Button who will raise or float with middle pair it is ok to go broke on K97 flops, because the times BB takes a large chunk of Button stack when Button will float K96 flops will compensate for the loss.
B. Limp (check) preflop.
Here Button made a slight preflop mistake by calling, IMO it is not even a mistake and I would make such a limp a lot. Now, postflop I would prefer to be in Button shoes, as Button is very unlikely to lose a big pot, while BB can.
Situation changed, in a limped pot Button plays correct if he just waits to hit the flop big i.e. K97, K86 flops, and folds when he doesn't hit. Moreover for BB now the hard times came, let say the flop is K97 or K86 BB bets , Button raises. BB folds? If BB calls does he fold to a second barrel? Moreover There are tricky flops like KT6, BB bets, and Button could call here with just a gutshot. (Yes, I do such calls against a right OP. Preferrably a tight one.) If turn comes an 8, there is no way BB would see this coming. (Making comparison with a raised pot, Button wouldn't have correct implied odds to call on the same flop, due to the different pot to stack ratio.) In all the other cases Button could just fold if BB leads, or try to steal the pot if everyone checks to him.
So from this (incomplete, of course) comparison we see that if BB doesn't raise then Button played correctly, while if BB(SB) raises Button made a mistake in the hand. (By limping preflop or calling a raise.) Raising is +EV for BB. Limping is +EV for Button.
Statistics: Posted by Zmej — Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:35 am
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Result: MP1 checked behind. He had
![[9c]](https://livepokerforum.com/images/smilies/9c.gif "The Nine of Clubs")
![[Tc]](https://livepokerforum.com/images/smilies/Tc.gif "The Ten of Clubs")
. MHIG.He obvisously wouldn't have called a push, and he didn't try to bluff it either.
In this particular case I think he actually woudl have called a preflop raise, and with similar bet sizes to the pots size I guess he would have been close to all in on the turn, so I would have won more.
But if I would have raised preflop, this guy (and maybe MP2 to) would have called, and the flop would have come, say
or something, I couldn't reasonably CB, and would have a tricky situation where I would need to C/C or C/FMy reasoning for checking the river was that since any draws didn't get there, he would either have had me beat from the start with JT - and then he would reraise my bet AI, and I would call and lose anyways. If he had a missed draw, he wouldn't call my bet and might take a chance to bluff it. The only hands that I though might call a bet but not bet would be AQ/AJ/AT/KQ. So I might lose some value on those? Correct thinking, or am I better of pushing hoping to get called by these hands?
An interesting effect after this hand was that I got enormous respect of my raises and CBs after this hand, and I could become a lot more aggressive and take a lot pots down unimproved with CBs.
Statistics: Posted by Electrolux — Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:14 am
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