Playing Big SlickEarly In A Tournament
Playing Ace-King is a very difficult hand to play in the early levels of tournaments, when the stacks are deep compared to the blinds. The fact of the matter is, top-pair/top-kicker is probably no good if another player is willing to risk all of his chips. This isn't always the case, you may find an extremely weak player willing to go broke on K-10, but that's the rare exception. The real problem with A-K early on is that it's very difficult to get an idea of where you're at in a hand. Even on an innocuous looking flop of something like K-10-5, you may think your hand is good. But you can't be sure. You raise pre-flop with A-K and a late-position player calls. The two of you see a K-10-5 flop. You bet strong on the flop and then again on the turn. He calls on both bets. What Do you do bet the river and hope that you're not raised? Or do you check and hope that your opponent does the same? It's a difficult spot and there are no great options.Playing this hand in position is easier ,but you still have tough discision. While the blinds are still low in the tournament, I'm actually looking to see flops against the players who overplay top-pair/top-kicker. When I'm in position, I'm happy to call a raise with something like a small pocket pair, 7-8 suited, or even 7-9 suited. I'm looking to flop a big hand or a big draw. If you flop a set,you have a great chance of wiping out the player with top pair. If you flop a draw,you have a chance to see if the player will give you a good price to hit your hand. The best part of a suited hand like 7-8 or 7-9 is that there's no way you are going to get in serious trouble playing them. If you flop anything less than two-pair or a quality draw, you fold, having lost very little. A-k Is a great starting hand but do not fall in love with this hand, specially early in a tournament,to maney player's get knocked out very early in tournaments with this hand by falling in love with it.A-k late in a tournament when you are down to the final table is a great starting hand because the blinds are so much higher it is much eaiser to push players off weaker hands pre flop. When you're playing early in touraments, learn to play A-K cautiously. The pros don't like to go broke with this hand and you'd do well to follow their example.
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