Playing AK on a rag flop.

Hork42

Interpoker 1/2.

I have A:spade: K:diamond: in CO pos.
1 EP limper, I raise. Button folds. Small Blind calls, BB folds, EP calls.
3 to the flop for 7sb.

Loose game, opponents will routinely cold call a raise with any cards. Which is great, but makes it difficult to read them sometimes... Idiots get good cards too.

Flop: 4:diamond: 9:spade: 8

SB Bets, EP raises.... I fold. SB calls.

So the turn is K:club: ...

and it ends there with EP taking the pot.

Please correct me if I'm wrong in folding here...

I didn't have much time playing against the player in the SB so not much of a read, but the EP player will call, bet and raise with just about anything...

That said, the flop could have hit them, but I could have easily been ahead, or behind with outs. I think the pot was not large enough for me to continue, and there was substantial risk of being against a straight.

I'm frequently in similar situations where I'll have overcards to the board against players who will play anything and I'm not quite sure how to treat the draw to overpairs....

hork.

ScottyZ

This is a good fold I think. Pretend the turn card was the 2:club: or one of the other 41 unseen cards Q or below in the deck instead and you'll feel better.

ScottyZ

Dick Hertz

You were correct to fold the AK on the flop. IN a loose game many players will play any hand with an Ace in it suited or unsuited and quite often will play any K X suited. For this reason it is correct not to chase AK when you miss the flop. Players that do chase the AK will frequently find themselves hitting their Ace on the turn but still be losing to a player that had a pair on the flop with an Ace kicker and now has 2 pairs.

Keep folding the AK if you dont hit the flop and you will save yourself lots of money in the long run.

Flop Ninja

Well, keep this is mind.

You have 6 outs to hit the top pair. With the rag flop, 3 differnt suits I'm not afraid of many big hands, j10s is the scariest holding here. You have 6.83:1 odds of hitting top pair whicih is probably going to be the best hand on the turn.

This is 1-2 hold'em correct? If there is 6-7 dollars in the pot you should call. It's the right play. The wost that could happen is a newbie played a4, a8 or a9 but at worst you still have 3 outs from your king. I can't imagine not calling here if the pot was over 7 dollars anyway...

Hork42

Flop Ninja wrote:

Well, keep this is mind.

You have 6 outs to hit the top pair. With the rag flop, 3 differnt suits I'm not afraid of many big hands, j10s is the scariest holding here. You have 6.83:1 odds of hitting top pair whicih is probably going to be the best hand on the turn.

This is 1-2 hold'em correct? If there is 6-7 dollars in the pot you should call. It's the right play. The wost that could happen is a newbie played a4, a8 or a9 but at worst you still have 3 outs from your king. I can't imagine not calling here if the pot was over 7 dollars anyway...

Don't forget that it was 2 bets cold coming back to me. Makes my draw to overcards hard to call.

I could be up against 44, 99, 88, or even something silly like a straight draw, or even against a garbage hand.. I have very little read on some of these players... makes it hard to continue, I think. Maybe for one bet.

hork.

ScottyZ

Even facing only one bet, I don't think you can call here. Calling two bets is clearly out of the question.

Why would you be afraid of JT here? You are winning against that hand.

After the flop bet and raise, I've got to assume my AK is not currently in the lead. In a 1-2 game, I could put either opponent on any of the following hands which are going to give me big trouble:

AA
KK
44
88
99
89
89s <-This strikes me as quite reasonable, along with the pocket pairs (okay, other than AA, KK)
49s
48s
A4
A8
A9
A4s
A8s
A9s <-All of these Aces strike me as very reasonable also
K4
K8
K9
K4s
K8s
K9s

I'm not suggesting that you need to worry about running into these kinds of monsters very often (particularly, you can't worry too much about these holdings if you actually flopped a good hand yourself in low-limit), but they are all at least plausible based on the pre-flop & flop action.

In low-limit, I can pick a much better spot for my $1 than calling a 3-way flop where I am certain to be behind, and I possibly am drawing dead, have 3 outs, or in the best case have 6 outs.

And forget about how many outs you have for a moment. You are suggesting attempting a draw to *one pair*. In low-limit, that just plain sucks. Even if you happen to get a lucky turn, you're possibly still facing 2 opponents each with 5 out re-draws.

ScottyZ

BBC Z

For 1 bet, I call with AK. Facing a bet and a raise in front of me, I toss it away.