Moroun Grinder

Moroun Grinder further considers his Ace King Play

One of the most obvious and consistent mistakes you see players make is over playing ace king when they miss the flop – particularly when playing deep stacked poker in cash games or at the beginning of tournaments. Many of these players have seen the big all ins that occur with this hand late on in tournaments on television, look down at ace king and reason they should win a big pot, and then often get the rest of their stack in with one pair or even just over cards on very bad boards against multiple opponents.

The reality of ace king is that it is often quite a marginal hand when playing deep stacked poker. Although you will usually be slightly ahead pre flop, on the flop ace king rarely develops into much more than a pair or just ace high (a suited ace king is a much stronger hand as it can develop into the nut flush), or a bad straight draw (ace king can never flop a two card open ended straight draw – you will only ever have a gutshot straight draw with it two carded). These are not the best hands to be playing pots for a huge number of big blinds with in a cash game, or early on in a tournament.

When playing deep stacked you should be looking to get involved with hands that play well in games with lots of big blinds in play. Hands like sets, flushes and straights are the hands you want to be getting your stack in with when playing for lots of big blinds, with the result that playing ace king slowly early on is a hallmark of nearly all the best tournament players. This is not to say that ace king cannot be a useful hand deep stacked, just that it needs to be treated very differently when playing deep than compared to late on in a tournament when everyone is playing with only twenty odd big blinds in front of them (here you nearly always just want to get your stack all in pre flop regardless of the action).

A final point about ace king is that it has much more power when all in pre flop. When all in pre flop, you get to see all five cards for free, and give yourself a better chance of hitting an ace or a king on the turn or river. When playing deep stacked, it is often very hard to see the turn or river cheaply, and calling big bets with just over cards in no limit hold'em is nearly always a recipe for disaster.

Ace king is a very illusory hand in that it looks good, but its power is extremely relative to the situation you are in. Understanding when to push hard with it and when to slow down or back off completely is crucial to maximizing your profits in the long run.