All in Preflop with AK...

[Talking Poker]

I thought this was worthy of a new thread and hopefully a new discussion. This started here:


I used to think this was a TERRIBLE play myself... until I saw Don Mullis doing it over and over and over again in Aruba.... and going deep consistently. I thought it was a really weak move, but (as much as it pains me to admit), this guy is a solid player. So I started giving it some more thought.

And actually, I know that bdawg has very recently been experimenting with this with GREAT success. Maybe we can get him to post about it here.

I think the theory is that even when playing them "normally," a lot of people end up winning small pots with AK or losing big ones. By playing them all in like this, you will usually still only win a small pot, but you'll lose the big ones far less often (usually you take it down preflop). If you do get called, unless you are up against AA or KK (which likely would have clobbered you after the flop anyway if you got any piece of it), you're basically at worst a coinflip. PLUS, if you are up against a hand like QQ, you now get to see all 5 board cards to improve your hand, where playing "normally," you'd only get to see 3 and would have to get off of your hand after a ragged flop. Now you get to see the turn and river as well, for what is effectively 67% more of a chance to improve. You're opponent also can't get off his QQ for cheap if the A or K comes on the flop. Lastly (I guess), factor in the times when you'll get called by AQ and such, because they assume you have a baby pair, and this move starts looking more and more +EV.

Sorry for that rambling post... just trying to get the ideas down quickly.

I have yet to try this yet and I don't know that I will anytime soon, but like I said, I know bdagw has been experimenting with it recently. He gets made fun of, but he's been extremely successful too (he was 14-0 with this the last time I checked). So hopefully he'll post his thoughts on it too.