The dreaded? AK
 

Kind of a toss up between how should I of played this or not, since its not a specific time...... I'll just post it here.

This is a reprint of a question which originally formed on the Winners and Losers thread (im not server friendly enough to know how to hyperlink it :D )

I've found AK to be a hand where its very hard to react when someone shows strength and you hit it.....In a cash game, How exactly DO you react to an opponents showing of strength when u hit ur AK. Ok you make your raise preflop (or call a raise preflop), then you hit your TPTK. You bet out assuming u were the raiser, or check raise assuming you were the caller and you're raised/reraised,,,,with no unusual read on the player, this is one situation I have not been able to grasp.

Tournament Id reraise preflop with AK 75% of the time, in a cash game however Id say its as low as 20%.... and the way I play becomes very different......

any input about these situations and ways of dealing with them?

gues everyone is just as or more perplexed than me :confused:

it depends on the texture of the flop.

obviously, if there was a raise pre-flop (and you have no unusual read) you have to put your opponent on a range of hands. did he limp, you raise, and he call? if so you can probably put him on a much weaker hand. is 2-pair a real possibility? what is the texture of the flop? is he just raising me assuming that i'm making a continuation bet and he's got a smaller pair? how is he reacting, how is he playing. once again there's no way to say "how to play" a certain hand... that's what makes poker so god damned hard.

generally speaking? i usually play AK when i hit TPTK very aggressively. MOST of the time you'll be way ahead, and probably be running into something like KQ, KJ, AQ, AJ... or even pairs like QQ, JJ, TT who are trying to get you to fold by representing hitting a set or 2-pair.

the only times that i would be really scared when an opponent shows strength is if the flop comes out 3 to a suit and i dont have the A or K to that suit... or if a flop comes something like 789 because then you really have to worry about those small connecters. i don't know if this helps at all, but as you can see this post is already too long, and i really didn't even get complex with it.