Tip of the Day in Texas Holdem – Ace-King Weakness

Written By: writer on August 27, 2010 154 Comments

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With the rise in poker’s popularity, specifically online Texas Holdem, it seems like the strong starting hands are losing more usually than they should in betting online. Is there a reason for this? More unskilled opponents are calling everything right down to the river, and that’s why a hand like Ace-King is losing more usually than it should.

In low-limit Texas Holdem competitions it is rather common to see a raise with Ace-King getting called by four or 5 hands. All of a sudden the AK doesn’t look nearly as formidable against four or 5 drawing hands.

Even someone calling with something like A-7 could present a problem if a flop like A-3-7 comes down. It seems like the AK would look very formidable here, yet you have no way of figuring out that someone flopped 2 pair.

The important thing when you play Ace-King, and an Ace or a King hits on the flop, is that you’re going to bet. It’s the proper strategy. Especially in Limit Holdem where individuals will draw with anything, that doesn’t mean you will always win.

You have more competitors that are playing marginal hands in Limit Holdem, and there are going to be more bad beats for a hand like Ace-King when that happens. Is there anything it is possible to do with the Ace-King? In that prior situation, how many ways can you play the Ace-King?

Technically you could fold Ace-King before the flop but that is not an option. You could check instead of betting, but that is not a great choice either. AK is a fantastic hand and you want more money in the pot. You could check on the flop instead of leading out with a bet, but you offer other competitors a free card.

So how could you have played the Ace-King any better? There truly is not a lot it is possible to do if someone flops the 2 pair. You’re probably only stuck paying them off.

Why does Ace-King lose so often? For one, way too many competitors are staying in the hand. There’s nothing it is possible to do regarding that. You’ll still have to lead out and bet. Second of all, it probably only seems like AK is losing a great deal.

It makes you want to play more hands that you probably should not if you continuously get bad beats with AK. It truly gets tricky when you continuously see everybody hitting crap hands like A-3, K-5, etc, to defeat your stronger starting hand.

You begin to think that if they can play iffy hands, you can as well. So instead of losing with only AK every so often, you begin losing with A-10, A-9, K-10, etc.

In actuality, AK probably doesn’t lose an excessive total of the time, it only seems that way. AK only looks so great that when you lose it places you on tilt and that is all you remember.

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