While covering the 2014 WSOP last summer for PokerNews, I noticed a pattern in the way many tournament players play AK, or “Big Slick.” Time and time again, I saw players get all their chips into this hand before the flop, including many times when doing so wasn’t necessary.
Sometimes going all in with AK is certainly profitable, especially when your stack is very small. But betting all 40-50 big blinds or more before the flop with a not-so-strong hand is problematic. This article discusses some of the reasons why you should rethink the way you play Big Slicks in tournaments.
Tournaments are not Cash Games
In cash games, it’s easy to argue for putting a substantial amount of money into the pot preflop with AK. However, in tournaments, your success is based on survival. This means being a bit more conservative than you would be in cash games, including hands like Big Slick.
I’m not saying don’t play AK aggressively. It’s a strong starting hand that can be very profitable if played correctly. If your stack is less than 20 big blinds, for example, you’ll happily go all in with this hand preflop. However, that doesn’t mean the same is true for all deep-stacked games.
A common type of hand I witnessed last summer went something like this:
Two players have stacks of over 50 big blinds. Player A raises to 2-2.5 times the big blind. Player B re-raises with AK to about 5-7 big blinds. Player A four-bets to 12-15 big blinds. Player B can then five-bet large enough to commit him to the pot or go all in.
3-betting in this situation with AK is acceptable. After that it starts to become marginal.
One of the benefits of playing AK is that you generally have two ways to win. One comes from the fold equity you have with a preflop raise. The second is by seeing all five community cards – and make no mistake, AK needs to see all the five cards – and win the hand at showdown.
The problem with the above example is that one of the ways to win the hand no longer exists. When the five-bet occurs, Player B has little to no fold equity left, since Player A has shown that he is willing to bet all of his chips. There may be situations where Player A will fold the hand even after four-betting, but these situations are very rare.
In most cases I see players committing with huge stacks before the flop with AK, and it doesn't work out well for them. Occasionally they'll run into hands like AQ, but more often than not they'll face AA or KK, or another lower pocket pair that ends up winning on a coin flip. Do you really want to risk elimination in a situation like that, especially during the early stages of a tournament where the stacks are deep enough to avoid committing like that?
“Ace and King” does not always equal “All In”
I mentioned earlier that there are two ways to win with AK. By playing conservatively preflop with a deep stack and Big Slick, you can keep both winning possibilities open, and also avoid committing yourself to the pot.
Let's look at our example again, but this time we'll make the player with AK play differently.
Again, let's say Player A raises 2-2.5 times the big blind, Player B re-raises with (Ax)(Kx) to 5-7 big blinds. Player A then 4-bets to 12-15 big blinds. This time, however, Player B just calls. Both players have approximately 40 big blinds remaining.
The flop comes 852 and Player A bets. Player B folds and lives to play another day while Player A shows JJ and takes the pot. Or let's say the flop comes K73 and Player B ends up doubling up on Player A, who couldn't give up his pocket queens.
As with most things in poker, how you should play these hands depends on who your opponent is and how they have played so far. If Player A is re-raising lightly (with little to no value), going all-in with AK might be a good option. If that is not the case, it is best to think of a way to play that does not put all your chips at risk in such risky spots.
If Ivey can do it…
You could argue, and rightly so, that there are situations where it is better to fold (Ax)(Kx) preflop against a 4-bet of 12-15 big blinds. Such a situation occurred during coverage of The $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop on ESPN when Phil Ivey did just that in a hand against Doc Sands.
The hand took place early on Day 2 at Level 10, with blinds of 25,000/50,000 and an ante of 5,000. Doc Sands opened from UTG for 115,000 (just over 2 times the big blind), the table folded and the action reached the Small Blind, where Phil Ivey re-raised to 340,000 (almost 7 big blinds). Doc Sands re-raised again to 820,000 (over 16 big blinds), and after some thought, Ivey folded the hand.
From the stream we saw that Ivey was holding (Ad)(Kc) – good for him, since Sands was holding (As)(Ah). “One of the few players who isn’t addicted to Ace-King preflop… he folded the hand!” said Lon McEachern when he announced the hand during the stream.
Holding over 7.3 million when he folded (over 145 big blinds), Ivey certainly could have called the 4-bet to see the flop. But being so deep and out of position with Big Slick, he chose not to get himself into a potentially unfavorable and unnecessary situation.
The next time you’re playing in a tournament and patiently waiting for a good hand, and you’re dealt a Big Slick, make sure you think about the entire situation before putting all your chips on the table. Your bankroll will be happy for it.
Translated and adapted from: Overplaying Big Slick When Deep Stacked in Tournaments
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