My Love-Hate Relationship With Anna

Ace-King. AK. Big Slick. Anna Kournakova. Call those two powerful cards whatever you will, but also recognize that playing AK correctly is probably one of the hardest things to learn in beginning poker. I don't know about you, but whenever I look down and see Anna in the hole, my thoughts ricochet between elation and terror.

The guru tells me that the secret to playing AK is NOT to focus on how much you can win with her, but rather to focus on simply losing less. The wins will take care of themselves, he says, but not the times you hit air on the flop. AK by itself is just an Ace-high hand. In many situations it’s going to be a coin toss with other playable hands. Do not ever forget that.

AK almost always needs to improve to win at a showdown. But how do you limit those losses when it doesn't improve? Continuation bets post flop have traditionally worked for me, but lately I ain’t getting no respect with my bets. I seem to be the Rodney Dangerfield of big slick poker. (Or maybe it's Rodney King? Kinda feels like it sometimes… ah, but I digress.)

Okay, one way to limit losses with Anna to heed the advice of Bret, who says that whenever you get dealt AK, to try to think of it as AQ instead. AQ is a lot easier to lay down than big slick. If you can get away from AQ, why can't you do the same with AK? Just treat Anna K the same way you treat Anna Queernakova, and you’ll do much better in the long run. It's an intriguing idea, and one that I've been experimenting with.

Matt Matros, in his excellent book The Making of a Poker Player, writes that to money in a tournament, you have to win with AK at some point, and, just as importantly you have beat someone else holding AK. I think what he’s really trying to say is you have to get lucky with (or against) Anna or else you don't have a prayer.

I played a SnG last night. Nothing big, just a $2 game on Full Tilt. It was bubble time, and blinds were starting to go up. I was dealt A8o UTG. My M was something like 8 or 9. Without thinking too much, I raised. The Button and SB folded, but the BB pushed almost immediately. Crap. Unfortunately, I was pot committed and made the crying call. He turned over AK, which of course dominated my A8o.

So what did I do wrong? Easy: I violated the cardinal rule of raising on the bubble with a hand that I wasn’t willing to take a re-raise with. A8o is decent, but it’s dominated by a lot of other hands. My M was getting small, but not THAT small yet. I shouldn’t have raised with the hand. If anything, I should have either folded or pushed. No middle ground.

Unbelievably, I rivered an eight and knocked that poor schmoe holding Anna in his arms out of the game. I went on to win the tournament, all the while with Mat Matros’ words ringing in my head. I got lucky with Anna. It could just as easily been the opposite. She’s such a damn fickle tease…

All-in for now….
-Bug