Hold Em Authority - Texas Hold Em Strategy and advice for all levels of players

Todd Arnold, known as NSXT2 on the online poker circuit, wrote an article a couple months ago on the way he thinks AK should be played. It does seem to me and others that I talk to on a regular basis that AK is the favorite hand of a lot of players who play online poker. Arnold discusses this in his article, but he doesn’t mention (at least not directly) the fact that players, especially beginners, like AK so much because they know that in this case, they probably can’t be making a mistake by pressing the issue with this hand.Playing a hand like JJ can often lead to calling off all your chips to an overpair, but AK rarely runs into AA or AK, meaning that it is always at worst a coin flip. I think this fact alone gives players a confidence boost when playing AK, making them feel like they can play it more aggressively because they really don’t have to do any catching up. Arnold advises not to put too much stock in the hand, and I must say I agree with him, because as he points out, “hell, its just a drawing hand.”

Don’t show your level of poker expertise (beginner) by playing this hand much too strong. Know when and how to get away from the hand, and let your better judgment prevail, even if it is the first big hand you’ve seen in a long time.