Cash game standard play with AK for NL10 without HUD?

Originally posted by CharlotteD
But I believe people do not 3-bet or 4-bet loose enough to make this a profitable play, what are your thoughts on this?

I totally disagree with this. But it's very situational e.g. when a rock 4bets you from EP his range is probably much less polarized then when a LAG is 3betting from the BTN. It's never as simplistic as "Oh I have AK, is shove 100% and print money". You need to factor in everything: stack sizes, position, table image, table size all should be influencing your decision how to play your AK pre.

That being said, another issue with AK is you are almost always on a flip, assuming nobody is calling with AQ or worse. I don't think that's a good spot to be in.

If you can get your opponents to fold enough in order to steal some pots that's added value but is this your long term money maker with AK? I don't think that's the best play with a strong hand like AK, especially AKs. 5-bet shoving will do you no good if your opponent is only calling with JJ+ and AK.

Conclusion even though I doubt that most villains are that nitty they only 4bet with KK+, much rather then shoving pre I want to see a flop IP and continue from there.

I'd mix in 4-bets and flatting myself. The thing with playing HUDless is that you have to observe much more and can play your AK accordingly. Another thing with playing on sites without a HUD is that the play is usually not so tight and you'd be surprised how often you actually dominate maniacs with your AK.

Hi ! As you play in 10NL the rake has prominent impact on your win rate and some decisions that might be good in like 200NL become -EV in 10NL.
-> As you say some people recommend to broke with AK as the basis and to deviate if you have specific informations on a player. I don't think it is the right thing to do in 10NL, you're never glad to broke with AK, even if villa has TT+ and AK+ you have only like 40%, minus the rake ( 6% ) you loose like 22bb on the long run, means that if you have to go all in if you already put at least 22bb in the pot. And we're talking about player that go all in wilder, again a broking range QQ+/AK you really loose a lot. <

So seen that I would advise, and that's how I play it, to NEVER put you in a spot where you will 100% of the time go all in and get paid with AK. Like if you get 4bet, you should go all in only if you have fold equity, meaning that vilain 4bet light, otherwise just fold ( yep it's sad ).

In the case where you get 3bet : you can call if you're in EP and vilain doesnt really 3bet light ( often the case in 10NL ) / another option, like a CO vs BU 3bet situation, you can 4bet jam ! It can seem pretty dumb, but even the solver takes this line. The idea is to ( 1 ) have fold equity and sometimes win the pot without rake ( 2 ) to avoid playing OOP a hand with no playability and ( 3 ) because you have good blocker and good equity when get called.
-> You can also do that with hands like TT-JJ that play bad OOP but have a decent equity against vilain's range.
-> 4bet jam is as more effective as the 3bet sizing gets bigger.

That's it ! Hopefully it will help
GL