AK - Why You Aren't Playing It Aggressively Enough

Lately on the DeucesCracked forums, posts have been popping up about how to play AK correctly. I remember when I started out, I had the same questions. In the current state of online poker, the games are typically very aggro and the general consensus is to play AK like it's the nuts PF. But the posts are being made questioning this because when they look through theirs and filter AK, they are finding out that they may be losing some money with it, or not winning that much. Well, that may be a problem to itself, but they're posting to ask exactly why AK should be played aggressively, and suggesting perhaps they are losing money due to playing it this way. I popped in to throw out some reasons why I think (and most winning online players) AK should be played like it's AA or KK. I'm going to cross-post it here because you might find some value in it.


"If you're just looking at the dollar amount directly made with AK, you aren't looking at the whole story. When AK gets AIPF, you know it's almost 50/50 with ANY pair thru QQ, and crushed vs KK/AA. You aren't going to be getting AIPF vs AQ/AJ/KQ/KJ as often at the passive micro and smaller stakes (You will much more as the games get more aggressive with 3 and 4-betting though, and then it's even better as you get in in against dominated Aces!) So your amount made is going to be a bit deceiving if you think it represents the full effect AK has on your winrate.

The rest of the story can't be calculated on HEM/PT/etc. and that's how much extra money you make by playing AK aggressively, by way of:

1) Getting more action on AA/KK (and as games get more aggressive, that range widens). As a very simple example, if you 4bet or shove vs an opponent who has QQ, how much harder is his decision if you're range is QQ+ or QQ+/AK. Plug those two ranges into pokerstove vs QQ or even JJ and you'll see quite a difference. QQ vs QQ+ has about 20%, QQ vs QQ+,AK doubles up to 40% equity. 100% increase just because AK is in your range. This is very significant. AA/KK will show their thanks in dollar signs, fist pumps, loose women, fancy cars, and all night benders at the Spearmint Rhino O_O.

2) Winning the pot right away against hands that have really good equity. PP's and unpaired non-dominated hands like QJ etc have really good equity in the pot vs AK - slightly better than 50% and 40% respectively (give or take some depending on the exact cards, suitedness, etc.) When they fold their equity share, you make money. You might not win too many huge pots individually this way, but all the small and medium pots really add up. They are just more easily forgotten than the one big pot you might have gotten stacked in.

Things may change in the future as the game evolves or cycles, but as of the current state of online poker, aggressive AKs are better than ever."

Update

It's been few days since my first post.  I actually started moving last Friday to a new place and wasn't able to play much over the weekend.  Everything is just now getting settled so I plan on grinding a ton of hands (for me at least) through the rest of the month.  I wrote down a lot of notes about very common mistakes and ways to exploit them that I'm seeing at these levels.  I've also had to make some adjustments, which I'll note.  It's kind of weird from your end, since you'll probably be starting with a lot in common with my new adjustments, and as you move up, will be moving toward how I was originally playing.  It's pretty much in reverse.

Anyways, I'll post up my thoughts, probably Sunday, on these levels after not playing this low for about a year, point out very common mistakes and ways to take full advantage to get that win rate up, my results, and finally mistakes that I'm probably making and adjustments to try and patch those leaks.

Last thing I wanted to say is that I want to start blogging more frequently now that I am mostly moved, if only a few lines or hands each day or every other day.  I'm also going to try to post at least one short video for each level, with or without commentary.  If there is no commentary, it will likely be very boring, but it's more for my own purposes to look back at one day and see how I was playing.  I could keep it private, but figured that it's not a problem to post it and at least provide the option of watching.  It' better than not having an option, amiright?

March $200 Cash Game Challenge

Starting March 1st, Bluff Magazine is hosting a competition where 20 top online pros will begin with only $200 in special accounts. They will have one month to build the largest bankroll they can by playing in only MTTs and SNGs. If they go broke, they're out. The winner will be featured on a cover of Bluff. You can follow everything here.

I'm going to do my own challenge, but in cash games. I'll start with $200 in one account and see how much I can grow that in one month, starting and ending on the same days as the Bluff challenge. I'll use some basic bankroll management guidelines, such as only taking shots/moving up to a new limit with 15-20 BI's, moving down if I reach 10 BI's.

Each week I'll post up results on my progress and, at the end of the month, we'll see how I did. If the results are good, then maybe this will motivate some micro-stakes players as to what can be accomplished.

Here is my outline (which will be revised each week depending on results):

---

Week 1

$200 BR -> 10NL

Goal

• Have $500 (+300) BR to move up to NL25 Week 2

Plan to Achieve

• 20bb/100 hands winrate
• 15,000 hands (avg. 2500 hands/day over 6 days)
  
• That will equal $300, enough to move up.

---

Week 2

$500 BR -> 25NL

Goal

• Have $1000 (+500) BR to move up to NL50 Week 3

Plan to Achieve

• 10bb/100 hands winrate
• 20,000 hands (avg. approximately 3400 hands/day)
• That will equal $500, enough to move up.

---

Week 3

$1000 BR - 50NL

Goal

• Have $2000 (+1000) BR to move up to NL100 Week 4

Plan to Achieve

• 10bb/100 hands winrate
  
• 20000 hands (avg. approximately 3400 hands/day)
• That will equal $1000, enough to move up.

---

Week 4

$2000 BR - 100NL

Goal

• Win at least $1000, to end month with $3000+ BR
  

Plan to Achieve

• 6bb/100 hands winrate
• 17,000 hands (avg. approximately 2900 hands/day)
• That will equal $1000, Goals Reached!
• Celebrate

---

Some final notes on this:

• I set goals that were not easy, but at the same time, very achievable.
• I set winrates lower than what I expect. Hopefully, my winrates will be higher and so the number of hands I will need to play will be reduced. Otherwise, they will be increased.
• I reduced my expected winrate as I moved up limits as that will be the realistic outcome.
• I'll be playing mostly 6max.
  
• I'll likely start out playing between 4-8 tables only. As I move up, I will reduce that number, eventually ending with 3-4 at 100NL. That will mean I'll be playing more hours to get in the required hands, unless my winrate is much higher than expected. I expect to run like god, though, so no worries there.

It will be a lot of work, but it will be fun and challenging. I can't wait to get started tomorrow. This is making grinding exciting again!