Poker Tip of the Day - Ace-King Vulnerability

With the rise in poker’s popularity, especially online poker, it seems like the strong starting hands are losing more often than they should. Is there a reason for this? A hand like Ace-King is losing more often than it should because more inexperienced opponents are calling everything right down to the river.

In low-limit Texas Holdem games it is very common to see a raise with Ace-King getting called by four or five hands. Suddenly the AK does not look nearly as strong against four or five drawing hands.

Even someone calling with something like A-7 could present a problem if a flop like A-3-7 comes down. It seems like the AK would look very strong here but you have no way of knowing that someone flopped two pair.

The bottom line when you play Ace-King, and an Ace or a King hits on the flop, is that you are going to bet. It is the proper strategy. That doesn’t mean you will always win, especially in Limit Holdem where people will draw with anything.

In Limit Holdem you have more players that are playing marginal hands, and when that happens, there are going to be more bad beats for a hand like Ace-King. Is there anything you can do with the Ace-King? How many ways can you play the Ace-King in that previous situation?

Technically you could fold Ace-King before the flop but that is not an option. You could check instead of betting, but that is not a great choice either. AK is a great hand and you want more money in the pot. You could check on the flop instead of leading out with a bet, but you give other players a free card.

So how could you have played the Ace-King any better? There really is not much you can do if someone flops the two pair. You are probably just stuck paying them off.

Why does Ace-King lose so often? For one, too many players are staying in the hand. There is nothing you can do about that. You still have to lead out and bet. Secondly, it probably just seems like AK is losing a lot.

If you continually get bad beats with AK it makes you want to play more hands that you probably shouldn’t. It really gets difficult when you continually see everyone hitting crap hands like A-3, K-5, etc, to beat your stronger starting hand.

You start to think that if they can play marginal hands, so can you. So instead of losing with just AK every so often, you start losing with A-10, A-9, K-10, etc.

In actuality, AK probably doesn’t lose an inordinate amount of the time, it just seems that way. AK just looks so great that when you lose it sets you on tilt and that is all you remember.