Billy Kopp - New UltimateBet Team Member - Post a Question

Q - Thought I'd ask you for some advice as I see you have done well on the poker circuit.  How would you normally play AK off suit in a 9 handed cash game in the big blind folded to button who raises 4 big blinds and small blind calls? (no antes) both players have over 40 blinds and so do you? No prior knowledge of the two players in hand.

A - Personally, in a cash game with no prior knowledge of the other two players I am going to just call the raise a good majority of the time.  Ace King IS a very strong hand and even more so when you are playing against late position raisers.  However, I am not looking to get in a big pot pre-flop with no knowledge of the types of hands the button makes it 4 times the big blind with.  I am putting the small blind on a wide variety of hands: pairs such as 10s and under, AJ, AQ, weak suited aces at times etc. 

The bottom line is that we can't put either player on a specific range from previous history with them.  The opponent in the small blind has a hand that they want to play and see a flop with but do not want to re-raise and commit too many chips with pre-flop.  A raise to 15-18 big blinds from the big blind opens up lots of different scenarios depending on the stack sizes which is a whole other topic. 

There are a lot of grey and high variance areas here.  By raise calling off many big blinds in a marginal spot even with a strong holding where it could be avoided to begin with is not ideal in my mind.  In this scenario with unfamiliarity, I am going to take the more conservative safe approach of just calling.  Also, by not raising I am completely under representing my hand due to the fact that most players would raise AK here.  This allows me to play more comfortably post flop with a strong holding in disguise.