Hand of the Week: Big Slick, Pre-Flop

You all did a great job with the comments on the Hand of the Week so far. People have covered the major arguments for 3-betting and for calling, and in fact I think it’s likely that Hero should be indifferent between the two and probably employ a mixed strategy. The most important thing is to think about your overall strategy with regard to sizing etc. and how AK will fit into it, and the comments that impressed me the most were the ones that did this, pokernoob’s especially.

In this instance, I chose to call, so I’ll outline the case for that, though again this was well covered in the comments section already:

1. Avoid facing a 4-bet that will put Hero in a tough spot (I would shove, but wouldn’t be happy about it)/avoid playing a large pre-flop pot in a tournament without an appreciable edge.

2. Keep dominated hands in Villain’s range.

3. Create some deception about Hero’s hand. Not that flatting AK here is a shocking play, but I think most tournament players 3-bet it most of the time, so there’s some deception value. Also because much of Hero’s flatting range will consist of pocket pairs, Villain will have incentive to get bluffy on A- or K- high boards.

4. Induce a squeeze.

The next decision point is in this post.