Optimizing Ace King: The Right Strategy For Playing Poker's Most Complex Starting Hand

by James Sweeney, Adam Jones, Ed Miller (Foreword)

Ace King is a massively profitable hand. In fact, AK is in the top-5% of winning hands and accounts for a good chunk of your winrate. But despite that fact, many players are confused about how to approach this hand. Should you 3bet it preflop, or just call it? Should you play the suited and offsuit versions the same, or differently? Should you c-bet with air, or check instead? And how many streets of value is top pair really worth? Most players struggle with AK due to small leaks in their strategy. So Optimizing Ace King (OAK) doesn't look to give you a bunch of memorized plays and tactics. Instead, OAK shows you how AK fits within your strategy and ranges. This prepares you for playing AK, among other hands, in a variety of spots and under a variety of conditions. James "SplitSuit" Sweeney and Adam "W34Z3L" Jones co-wrote this book to take an in-depth look at poker strategy through the lens of a single hand. Concepts include 3betting, 4betting, cbetting, barreling, GTO vs. exploitative play, and deducing lines from GTO solver output. You will play AK 99.9% of the time you are dealt it, and since it makes up such a large chunk of your winrate, doesn't it make sense to strengthen your approach with it? Each chapter builds upon the last, walking you through preflop play, flop play (when you hit, miss, and flop draws), and turn + river play. Plus there is an entire chapter full of examples and a chapter dedicated strictly to tournaments. If your winrate with AK could use a boost, invest a few chips and see the ROI in no time at all! (The foreword is written by legendary poker author Ed Miller)

Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2018

Reviews

[One Flew · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the concept of a book that explores how to play only one poker hand (Ace King) sounds excessive, the truth is that poker is an infinitely complex game. I'm only a recreational player at roughly an intermediate level and I can happily admit that a lot of the theory in this book went over my head. Even though some of it was over my head, I did pick up a lot of new information and a lot of practical concepts that I can easily put into use.

This book is probably better aimed towards the more advanced or high volume players who also have additional time to put into further study (using solvers, equity calculators etc). I have a full time job and (sadly) poker is just a hobby for me, if it has been a reasonably profitable one lately.

While I'll never be the sort of player that will ever dissect the game to this level, Optimizing Ace King did remind me to think more critcally about how I play. This book definitely deserves a reread to properly absorb all of the information and I will absolutely do so. A very insightful book that is more than just one particular hand and is really a way of thinking about the game.

[Santiago Mansilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

In poker there are some tricky hands difficult to play and A-K is one of them. This is the first book dedicated exclusively to how to play A-K and covers the most important aspects of the game: equities, math, pre-flop, post-flop, turn play, river play and tournament play with many examples of hands.

It's not a book for beginners, but players with some experience will enjoy the book and learn how to play better A-K in many common situations of live and online poker. Another great book of James.