Is it Worth it to Go Nuts With Ace-King?
Saturday, November 21, 2009 - Brandon Cantu
Tournament poker can be volatile to say the least. One second you can have a ton of chips and the next be walking your way out of the door. So often, I see people busting with Ace-King in situations where they severely have over player their hand.
During my recent trip to the UltimateBet.com Aruba Poker Classic I got involved in a rather big hand with Matt Brady, which I think signifies how someone can overplay ace-king. I started the hand with 16,000, Brady had 22,000 and the blinds were $100/$200 with a $25 ante. A player I did not recognize who we’ll call EP, raised to 600 from early position. EP had about 9,000 to start the hand, and when it got to me I just flat call. Matt Brady, in the small blind makes it 2,125 straight. With the action back to EP he quickly decides to move all in for his 9k. I over shoved for 16K and Brady, after thinking for a few minutes, made the call.
In my opinion, the way the hand played out with me flat calling preflop at first, and then making what essentially was a five-bet shove signifies one of three hands. I have aces, kings, or queens in that spot. Why risk such a large percentage of your stack against two opponents who are all in with a hand like ace-king? In an absolute best-case scenario he is flipping a coin, and most of the time ace-king is crushed by kings, or aces.
His initial re-raise is fine, and I am the type of player who does like to put pressure on my opponents with big re-raises. Let’s look at a situation where it would be OK to commit a bunch of chips with ace-king. Lets reverse the hands, and say EP raised in early position with ace-king, I called the raise, and Matt Brady made it 2,125 to go from the small blind. In that situation, a shove with ace-king from EP, is a good play. You are not calling off your chips, but instead putting the pressure on your opponent. Now you can win the pot in more than one way, your opponent could fold, or if he calls you could win your flip at a showdown.
So many beginning players look at ace-king as the stone cold nuts, when it is not at all. Ace-king is a drawing hand that at times can be very powerful, but can also cost you a lot of chips if you can’t learn to get away from it. The next tournament you play, work on a small experiment. Every time you do not connect with ace-king on the flop, actually give it up. Don’t try and continuation bet, don’t call a bet in hopes of catching your ace or king on the turn, just check-fold. This will allow you start getting more disciplined about actually laying down ace-king.
Every poker player needs to have a wide range of tricks up their sleeves. Some of these tricks require you to have the ability to pull the trigger on an outrageous bluff, and others require the discipline to simply be able to fold a hand when you know you aren’t ahead.
Ace-King may look like a monster every time, but if you aren’t careful when playing it, it will eat your stack alive.
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Tags: Aruba Poker Classic, matt brady, Poker Poker Poker, tournament, ultimatebet
