Is A,K the worst played hand in holdem?
Just wondering if I'm immagining things or is A,K really the worst played hand in holdem.
I've seen a lot of overplaying of a,K. People seem to think that because they were ahead or in a race preflop that they are ahead no matter what the flop is. After all A,Ko is about a 3:1 dog after an all low rainbow flop against any mid to high pocket pair. But still I see people making bets that will net them 2:1 even after a pot sized bet made it obvious that the opponent had a mid to high pocket pair.
I won't go into all of the situations I've seen but I even saw one guy limp in with A,K in early possition. Let's face it slow playing A,A can be risky. Slow playing A,K in early possition is bordering on insane.
I've seen a lot of overplaying of a,K. People seem to think that because they were ahead or in a race preflop that they are ahead no matter what the flop is. After all A,Ko is about a 3:1 dog after an all low rainbow flop against any mid to high pocket pair. But still I see people making bets that will net them 2:1 even after a pot sized bet made it obvious that the opponent had a mid to high pocket pair.
I won't go into all of the situations I've seen but I even saw one guy limp in with A,K in early possition. Let's face it slow playing A,A can be risky. Slow playing A,K in early possition is bordering on insane.
Comments
Looks good but never wins.
And they both make us want to push All-in!
and bust out a minute later...
It is easy to blow your entire load with something that looks so good in your hand...
perhaps it is poorly played in the wrong hands but it is one of my favourite hands to have. very easily played in certain situations.
as for limping with AK in EP? meh. doesn't seem like a big problem to me given the right circumstances.
I agree with Greg..I've limped in EP with AK. Its a move that I seldom employ (be aggressive, B-E aggressive) but against the right opponents, I've had some BIG successes with it, either with the limp/re-raise misrepresenting a bigger hand- or simply when you hit the disguised top pr/top kicker..I think you MUST have a good read on your opponents and you must be in a situation where you can afford to throw it away. But NOT a completely horrible move.
AQ is the devil,
AK make money
KK is my biggest $ maker (win % 100%)
AA lost me the most $ in September (win % 34%)
78 Make money too
Mark
K8 MAKE MUHHHHHHNEY!
100% and 34%. Prepare to ride the "Variance Express"...
100% win with KK?no way there's enough hands in that sample to mean a damn thing
When it hits though, it can very lucrative.
And I would like to add the Dream Hand to the list...Q2o!! EXTREMELY PROFITABLE!!!
I have found 74o OOP to be extremely profitable. Esp when someone in EP min-raises with AA. What a freakin monster!
p.s. I agree with Beanie/Kristy.
My bad.. should have clarified..
That was just in September hands
Mark
:ad :kd
and decided to just call. Maniac LAG on the big blind raised 5 times the BB. I just flat call. Flop was something like
:as :9d :5d
Maniac bets more than the pot, I flat call again along with a loose-passive calling station with the biggest stack. Turn is another diamond to give me the nut flush.
Maniac goes all-in, I flat call again along with the elephant (who could not speak English). The elephant had previously gotten irritated when I was looking at his chip stack, so after the river, I intentionally stared at his massive stack of chips. He again protested in a foreign language, went on tilt, and called my all-in.
After the maniac busted out, he went on tilt and kept rebuying until he ran out of money. The game finally closed down when the lucky elephant and I had everybody's money.
There's a popular magazine column that this month features a letter from a guy who thought he was hard done by when a pocket pair beat out his A,K that had missed the flop. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about.
Just to make it clear I don't particularly want to get rid of all the donks. As a matter of fact send any you find my way. Had one the other night who decided he was going to announce his hand to the table then go all in. :-)))))) Can you immagine anyone saying: "I can't fold I've got too many outs!" and then going all in on the turn?
Hm, let's see, he has straight and flush possibilitys but not a made hand, hm. I only wish I'd been in the hand with a nice pair of anything. Since I wasn't in the hand it wasn't much use to me other than as comic relief. I laughed myself silly when he got called and busted out. I guess the moral to that one is if you're going to be a donk don't announce it to the rest of the table. They'll find you out soon enough on their own.
Johnnie