How to Play Big Slick

The way to play Big Slick (AK) depends largely on your
positioning, how many players are in the hand, your "read"
on the situation, and so on.

Remember this mantra:

PLAY THE PLAYER, NOT THE CARDS.

Is Big Slick a monster hand?

Yes, of course it is.

But you'll get BURNT with it if you don't take the right
things into consideration.

When you're in late positioning, you should raise
aggressively pre-flop with Big Slick and try to narrow the
field down to one or two callers.

If you're in an early position, you should make a raise with
the same goal in mind: to narrow it down to a caller or two.
Except this time, you'll have to use more of your
"intuition" to decide how large your bet will need to be.

With Big Slick, you want to get RID of anyone at the table
who's holding a deuce... that way you're not scared about an
opponent having a pair of two's!

After the flop, YES, you should represent with a bet. Don't
CHECK the flop after making a pre-flop raise... only a wuss
does something like that.

If the board hits all scraps, you should be able to take the
pot down no problem. Make your opponents put you on a hand
like K-K or A-A and force them to fold.

If the board hits with either your King or Ace, once again
you'll have no problem winning the pot.

The times you need be careful are when either:

1. You think your opponent has a monster hand, like Kings or
Aces. (If this happens, fold!)

2. The board pairs up or there's a straight or flush draw
there.

In the latter case, you want to be careful not to bet into
your opponent if he's holding trips or a draw.

You won't be able to force him to fold, and you'll have
gotten yourself into a lot of trouble.

Now... if you represent the flop with nothing but Ace high
and your opponent calls, NOW it's time to back down.

If the turn card doesn't help you, just ease off.

Cut your losses and move on.

From: Roy Rounder Oct 7, 2007