Playing Ace King (AK)

Is there a reason for calling this hand “Big Slick” – Maybe there is? When you think of slick, you may think “Oil Slick”, well the way you play this hand may certainly get you in some slippery situations at the online poker table! A normal play with this hand is to raise before the flop, hey presto you hit top pair and ship all your chips in the pot only to be called. Great you are probably thinking, that is until you are called and they turn over 2 pair! The result is very similar to playing aces slowly and running into 2 pair when you finally shove your chips in the middle of the table.

Playing Ace King in Cash Games

Most people run into problems with AK in cash games when playing deep! By this we mean that they are playing ring games with a big stack at the table, for example sitting at a $2/$4 table with $500. Most people class ace king as a monster hand, they overplay it and waste far too many chips with it. Once you get in to a big pot with AK you are most likely in a coin flip situation with pocket queens or worse still running into pocket kings or aces. If you walk your AK into a family pot and hit top pair any action you see will probably be against a superior hand such as a disguised 2 pair or an obvious flush or straight. If you are lucky you may be up against some sort of drawing hand, but even then, this is not a position you want to be in.

Big Slick is a good hand of course, but it is not good enough for you to go to war with all of your chips. If you like gambling then this is the hand to gamble with, however, you must remember that gamblers normally lose more than they win!

Playing Ace King in Tournaments

Ace king is a much better hand in tournaments, especially near the business end of the tournament. By this we mean that holding AK and a lot of chips near the end of a tournament puts you in a perfect position to take the blinds and chips of any limpers with a massive shove in any position. If you just limp with AK you can also shove your chips in the pot on the flop if you hit any part of it! There are few bad ways to play Big Slick when deep in a tournament, although you should be very careful calling an all in or large raise unless the player seems to be doing a lot of stealing.

Written By Rakeback Pro