The most optimal line is just to flat here imo. You have no reads and you are oop. AK is a very vulnerable hand especially oop. You have no idea if they have a monster here so 4betting can get you in trouble in a lot of ways. You are massively deep here so just flat, disquise your hand a bit, try and smash a flop but proceed with caution imo in case they have KK or AA even though you have a blocker to each.

I’m going to turn my AK into a bluff here just because of position. I like a 4bet/fold here, simply because the cold 4bet should represent strength and take down a higher percentage of pots than calling and check folding. It’s hard to make a pair, and you’re given a chance here to represent a huge one preflop. Well, another reason I would like to cold 4bet is because it will give me invaluable information for the rest of the hand. I believe the only hands continuing will be hands that are 5betting you preflop. You’re correct in that you will be in a tough spot post flop, but your only real chance to have ever won this hand was preflop if you miss the flop, which of course will happen more times than hitting it.

Suppose how it played out, and you hit the K. Well, you may well be way behind the button and drawing slim. You failed to get the necessary information for optimal postflop play against 2 other players out of position. By flatting as well, you may have given more value to the original raiser to come along with suited connectors or small pairs, that may also have you crushes any time you hit your A or K.

Tldr; 4bet/fold is optimal IMO, for purposes of gaining necessary information to play AKs OOP post-flop.
Normally don’t condone turning AKs into a bluff, but here I do.

Edit: I don’t believe flatting is wrong here, and I feel the 4bet may lose value from some worse hands, but i prefer it over playing AKdd OOP against 2 players that I lack any real information on.

np. This hand in a nutshell though, is you either become flop dependent with AKdd OOP, or turn your AKdd into a bluff and risk playing a possible bloated flop OOP with it. It’s definitely a weird spot, because IMO the two most optimal plays are generally bad plays.

Wait, you’re planning on happily stacking off one pair for 105bb in a multiway pot, after playing AKs as a flop dependent hand with no other information besides a raise and 3bet pre? Given villains action, you could be way behind pre, and even further on an A or K flop. I’d never happily stack off there. That’s why id rather take an aggressive line pre, you can find out exactly where you stand in the hand and play accordingly.

Say, for instance, you flat pre, original raiser calls. Flop comes K48 rainbow. Dream flop according to what you wanted. What do you do here, lead out with a donk bet, or check/raise? Also in this instance, have you gotten the necessary information to rule AA, KK, 44, or 88 out of their ranges?

My point is that your 4bet pre will be infinitely stronger looking that a lead out, and given their reactions to the 4bet you can gather information on their range, which in this case should be near the top.

Like I said, I can see why flatting is a viable option, but I don’t personally like it. I’d be scared of most flops I hit flatting OOP with AKs, aside from of course TJQ flops.

rlamanna said:

 You failed to get the necessary information for optimal postflop play against 2 other players out of position. By flatting as well, you may have given more value to the original raiser to come along with suited connectors or small pairs, that may also have you crushes any time you hit your A or K.

Tldr; 4bet/fold is optimal IMO, for purposes of gaining necessary information to play AKs OOP post-flop.
Normally don't condone turning AKs into a bluff, but here I do.

 

 I'm not so sure how useful that info may be vs unkowns in the second level of a $30 big field mtt.

 

but essentially the diff between the 2 different lines being discussed above is whether you want to be agg and build stacks through your aggression, or whether you want to play safely trying to build a stack based on value from big hands and boards you hit without risking too many chips too early in teh tournament – just 2 diff playing styles, pros & cons with each