Ace King (AK), often a source of both great wins and frustrating losses, is one of the most challenging hands to master in tournament poker. Whether suited or offsuit, your strategy with this premium hand is a cornerstone of your overall game plan, making it vital to understand its nuances in various pre-flop and post-flop situations.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Ace King
Many players, especially at lower stakes, repeatedly make critical errors with AK. Understanding these common pitfalls is the first step toward improvement.
- Getting All-in for Too Many Big Blinds Pre-flop: A frequent mistake is risking 100 big blinds or more with Ace King against a pre-flop shove. While AK does well against hands like Jacks or Queens, calling off a large stack often pits you against dominant hands like Aces or Kings. There is a crucial distinction between shoving to generate fold equity and simply calling off your entire stack.
- Refusing to Flat Call a Raise: Many players feel compelled to 4-bet (re-raise a 3-bet) with Ace King against a tight opponent instead of just calling. This can lead to getting stacked in unfavorable spots, whereas a simple call can keep the pot manageable. The desire to avoid tricky post-flop decisions often leads players to go all-in when it’s not the optimal play.
- Playing Too Passively After the Flop: When Ace King doesn’t connect with the board, players often give up on the hand, checking and hoping their Ace-high is good enough to win. While this can sometimes be the right play, AK often needs to be used as a bluff at a high frequency, particularly in 3-bet pots where it represents a significant part of your pre-flop raising range.
Mastering Pre-flop Strategy with Ace King
The correct pre-flop approach with AK depends heavily on your stack size, your position at the table, and whether your cards are suited (AKs) or offsuit (AKo).
When You Are the First to Enter the Pot (Open Raising)
With a stack of 17 big blinds or more, you should generally avoid open-shoving. However, with a shorter stack, the strategy changes:
- Ace King Offsuit (AKo): You should start open-shoving with about 14 big blinds. AKo plays better as an all-in hand at this stack depth because it realizes its equity poorly post-flop. Shoving also strengthens your overall all-in range, making your other shoves with hands like weaker Aces more profitable.
- Ace King Suited (AKs): You can wait until you have 10 big blinds to begin open-shoving. Because AKs can easily make flush draws, it plays much better post-flop at lower stack-to-pot ratios. With 10-14 big blinds, you might even min-raise or limp to encourage action from other players.
When Facing a Raise
How you respond to a raise varies significantly with stack depth:
- Deep Stacks (200 Big Blinds):
- AKo: Mixes between 3-betting and calling from most positions.
- AKs: Is almost always a pure 3-bet. It realizes its equity very effectively in 3-bet pots, especially at deep stacks.
- Medium Stacks (50-80 Big Blinds):
- AKo: At 80 big blinds, you can 3-bet more frequently. By 50 big blinds, it becomes almost always a pure 3-bet.
- AKs: Is a pure 3-bet from all positions at both 80 and 50 big blinds.
- Shallow Stacks (Below 30 Big Blinds): As stacks get shorter, both AKo and AKs should consistently be 3-bet or shoved over an open raise.
When Facing a 3-bet (a Re-raise)
Your strategy against a re-raise is highly dependent on stack size:
- Deep Stacks (200 Big Blinds):
- AKo: Can sometimes be folded to a 3-bet, especially if you opened from early position and were re-raised by a player in the blinds. The blinds’ 3-betting range is very narrow at this depth, making AKo less effective.
- AKs: Is very happy to continue by just calling a 3-bet, especially when you have position post-flop.
- Medium Stacks (50-80 Big Blinds):
- AKo: At 80 big blinds, the hand has a strong desire to get all-in against a 3-bet. At 50 big blinds, it will typically either shove or make a small 4-bet.
- AKs: Never shoves at 80 big blinds. At 50 big blinds, it prefers to make a small 4-bet, as it plays very well post-flop even if you are out of position.
- Shallow Stacks (15-30 Big Blinds):
- AKo: Will almost always 4-bet jam at 30 big blinds to avoid getting called and having to play post-flop.
- AKs: Prefers a small 4-bet at 30 big blinds, planning to call an all-in.
- At 15 big blinds, both AKo and AKs become 4-bet jams because there is no room for non-all-in raises.
A general rule is that when you are deep enough to have a non-all-in 4-bet range,
AKs should be in that range along with pocket Aces to protect your strategy.
When Facing a 4-bet
- Deep Stacks (200 Big Blinds):
- AKo: May sometimes fold to a 4-bet in very tight scenarios. It can also be used as a 5-bet bluff.
- AKs: Should never be folded to a 4-bet. It prefers to call at a high frequency to protect your calling range and realize its equity after the flop.
- Medium Stacks (80 Big Blinds):
- AKo: Almost always wants to get all-in against a 4-bet.
- AKs: Will choose between jamming and calling depending on the specific table positions involved.
A Simple Guide to Post-flop Strategy
After the flop, your approach with Ace King can be guided by three main principles:
- Play AK Like Your Overall Range: The frequency with which you bet with Ace King should mirror the frequency you bet with your entire range of hands. If a board texture calls for you to bet your entire range, you should bet with all your AK combinations. If you are checking most of your range, you should check with Ace King as well. Because you have so many combinations of AK, it heavily influences your overall strategy.
- Pay Attention to Suits:
- AKo: Can flop valuable backdoor nut flush draws on two-tone boards, which can influence how aggressively you play.
- AKs: Will often flop flush draws or backdoor flush draws, making it a hand that is generally happier to bet and play more aggressively.
- Understand Why You Are Betting:
- As a Bluff: On high-card boards, a bet with AK can be a bluff designed to make opponents fold low pairs.
- For Value: On paired boards, a bet with Ace-high can be for value, getting calls from worse Ace-high hands or dominated draws. On boards that are Queen-high or lower where you haven’t made a pair, how often you bet with AK should correlate strongly with how often you bet with your entire range.