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The hand AK is often called big blick, however there is another less complimentary name for it as well in certain quarters and that is walking back to Houston which stems from the days of the old road gamblers back in the 1970s.

More people have busted out of Texas Holdem poker tournaments or lost their buy-in during a cash game with this one hand than any other. In this article I want to discuss the playing of AK in early position not just in a cash game setting but in poker tournaments as well.

What you need to remember with poker strategy is that there are often no answers to any one particular problem that are set in stone. This then means that some hands can be played numerous different ways and AK in early position is one such hand.

There are two trains of thought here, one is that you should always raise in early position with AK no matter what. These people argue that you need to drive out all of the players who have position on you who could have limped along with you and then outdrew you on the flop. They also argue that you do not want to give a player with position the initiative by allowing them to raise and thus forcing you to hit the flop.

All these points are valid of course but Texas holdem isnt quite as straight forward as that. Online poker these days is played at breakneck speed compared to live poker so you definitely need to know what you plan to do after the flop on certain types of boards as well.

One such counter argument to raising in early position in Texas hold em with AK is that you are telegraphing the fact that you have high cards and in deep stacked poker, telling your opponents the content of your hand can be very dangerous and especially when they have position on you. They will know where they stand and you wont until it is too late and you are committed.

Limping in with the AK is a deceptive play and it could get someone trapped for a large percentage of their stack who then decides to attack with a hand like AQ or AJ and an ace flops. As you learn poker and become more skilled and knowledgeable, you will begin to understand that asking questions about how to play a certain hand in a certain situation is actually asking the wrong question.

Poker is all about analysing entire lines of play and the underlying dynamics of the situation. You must learn to recognise how pre-flop action, stack sizes and game history marry up with flop texture and post flop hand strength. Another tricky way to play AK in early position is to limp with it looking to re-raise if someone tries to take control of the hand.

This has several advantages, firstly it is once again deceptive but in a completely different way. Now you are making your AK appear as though it is AA or maybe KK.
Also, if anyone plays back at this stage with substantial strength after you have made a poker play like that then you know full well that you are up against a big hand and can play accordingly after the flop. As always with poker, flexibility is the order of the day and it is how well you play from flop to river that counts and not how you play AK in early position or any other position for that matter.