need help with ak

[dannyof1992]

thanks, im playing 10 and 25 nl cash 6 handed.
my vilains are a bit of each kind of type

My trouble is, so, before i would play way too tight and only call / open raise but fold to
3bets.

Now i know i have to play stronger, but wouldnt the following scenario which is what seems to be recommended
from upswing poker
3bet most of the time, (ok i can do this and feel ok)
but most of the time 4 bet and call 4 bets?
at this point if i do this im 1/4 of my stack in, and even if i hit one top pair,
if i shove all in flop, or even slow play 1/2 pots to river im basically all in
and dont sets of aces and kings beating me outweigh the benefits of playing that agressively?
i may be and hope im wrong, and that more than half the time im making money hitting and getting it in
vs weaker stuff like qq - busted draws, etc. thanks

 

[Funtast]

The biggest strength of AKo is that there are only 2 hands that you are in trouble against and you block both. Instead of 12 combos of AA plus KK there are only 6 combos left. Thats 0.5% of hands instead of 1% of hands.
What does that mean?
Lets say villain 3bets you with 8% of the hands. If you got AK he will have 0.5/8 = 1/16 = 6.25% AA or KK.
If you got QQ or JJ for ex. he will have 1/8 = 12,5% AA or KK.
AKo is great to steal the money preflop because you have to less fear the monsters.
If you hit the flop with AK in a 4bet pot you usually want to go broke. Only if flop contains more than 1 out of T, J, Q or its monocolour you can consider folding imho.

 

[dannyof1992]

what do you mean go broke like all in on flop if i hit in a 4bet pot?

 

[Funtast]

Going broke with a hand means, it doesn't matter how much you get raised you call.
And no, you usually don't go all in on the flop. Sometimes you plan to go bet flop, all in on turn, sometines bet, check, bet and sometimes check, bet, bet or bet, bet, bet. It depends.

 

[Aballinamion]

thanks, im playing 10 and 25 nl cash 6 handed.
my vilains are a bit of each kind of type

My trouble is, so, before i would play way too tight and only call / open raise but fold to
3bets.

Now i know i have to play stronger, but wouldnt the following scenario which is what seems to be recommended
from upswing poker
3bet most of the time, (ok i can do this and feel ok)
but most of the time 4 bet and call 4 bets?
at this point if i do this im 1/4 of my stack in, and even if i hit one top pair,
if i shove all in flop, or even slow play 1/2 pots to river im basically all in
and dont sets of aces and kings beating me outweigh the benefits of playing that agressively?
i may be and hope im wrong, and that more than half the time im making money hitting and getting it in
vs weaker stuff like qq - busted draws, etc. thanks

Upswing Poker teaches to advanced players, they are very good but not sure about micros strategy.
4-bet with AK preflop seems nice, but we own lots of off-suited combos, 12 and more 4 combos of suited AK. If we 4-bet all of our AK combos we are unbalanced.
We must forget all of these guessings that states that "we must do this or that everytime", because poker is a game based on specific and non repetitive actions and scenarios.
Sometimes we might wanna flat a 3-bet with AK, sometimes we will 4-bet for value/bluff. It depends on several factors such as who we are playing against, for example.
We must play aggressive and passive depending on the situation. If we are only aggressive we are maniacs. If we are only passive we never profit. We must weight the situation and ponder what is the best course of action.

 

[Station_Master]

Upswing Poker teaches to advanced players, they are very good but not sure about micros strategy.
4-bet with AK preflop seems nice, but we own lots of off-suited combos, 12 and more 4 combos of suited AK. If we 4-bet all of our AK combos we are unbalanced.
We must forget all of these guessings that states that "we must do this or that everytime", because poker is a game based on specific and non repetitive actions and scenarios.
Sometimes we might wanna flat a 3-bet with AK, sometimes we will 4-bet for value/bluff. It depends on several factors such as who we are playing against, for example.
We must play aggressive and passive depending on the situation. If we are only aggressive we are maniacs. If we are only passive we never profit. We must weight the situation and ponder what is the best course of action.

Just to add to this. AK is a good 4bet if your opponents are 3betting correctly. If they are only 3betting value (as many in micros are) then 4betting can be spewy (especially in position).

On the other hand against regs who will 4bet adequately then it is fine to 5bet all in is fine.

It's a tough hand to play and quite dependent on the situation