Over Betting Big Slick

I lost a fair bit of money today when I made a common mistake - over betting AK.

While AK is a premium hand, it's still an underdog to any pair. A pair of pocket two's heads-up against AK will win slightly more than half the time. Knowing this, many players, myself included will bet AK heavy before the flop to chase away smaller pairs. Some people even go all in with AK, to make sure they see all five board cards. The problem with doing this is that you also chase away weaker aces - the very hands you want to get heads up against. Another problem is that you might get called by a big pair, like AA or KK, and find yourself in a world of trouble.

This is what happened to me today. I made a classic mistake of over valuing Big Slick. I had been playing for about four hours and was down $100, when I was dealt AK in middle position. I wanted to win a hand so badly I stomped on the gas pedal. I raised 5 times the big blind and the big blind re-raised me. Now if I had been thinking, I should have put the guy on a premium hand like AA, KK, QQ or AK like me - but I was just so happy to get some action I didn't think at all. When the flop came A K 4 I was cooked - there was no way I wasn't getting all my chips into the middle with the top two pair. I checked, he bet, I moved all-in, he called and showed me KK for a set of kings. The miracle ace did not come to save me and I lost all my chips.

Dumb, dumb, dumb!

Sometimes you get so excited about what you have that you don't stop to think about what the other guy has and the results can be disastrous. This mistake cost me a bundle but if you can learn from my stupidity maybe you can avoid making this error.