AQ laydown, correct?

[John J]

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed)

saw flop|<font color="C00000">saw showdown</font>

UTG+1 (t1650)
MP1 (t1490)
MP2 (t1170)
MP3 (t2230)
CO (t1720)
Button (t820)
SB (t1440)
Hero (t1500)
UTG (t1480)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls t20, MP2 folds, MP3 calls t20, CO folds, Button folds, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (t80) 4/images/graemlins/club.gif, 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero bets t80</font>, MP1 folds, MP3 folds, <font color="CC3333">SB raises to t160</font>, Hero folds.

[Martin Aigner]

And exatly why did hero fold? Based on your information I can´t see a fold being correct.

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[SumZero]

I have no idea what the people on PS are like but that seems like a crazy laydown to me.

First of all I'm not cray about checking AQ in the big blind. But it isn't terrible.

But on the flop bet, you are a checked big blind. I think people are likely to put you on a hand like 96 for middle pair, and think you are betting hoping no one has an ace, wanthing to push out limpers who might have hands like TJ or KQ or something and could catch up with free cards. I think the SB probably completed with a weak A and thinks his hand is good. Sure there is some risk the weak ace was A4 or A6, but in that case he could afford to slow play it. I reraise here headsup against the SB.

[hhboy77]

i concur that this laydown is way too tight. my inclination would be to call and look at the action on the turn. if he has an ace, which seems his most likely holding, you can decide whether to continue trapping or raise.

reraising is reasonable, but i think you want to hold on to your customer a bit longer in the likely event that your hand is big boss.

[Desdia72]

first off, although i'm in the BB with AQ, i would'nt have checked to the flop...i would've raised preflop. you now have allowed someone with 5 7 or 3 2 to see a staright draw flop two ways cheaply. at best, a preflop raise represents an A x hand. i doubt the reraiser limped with a better Ace hand--- A K or pocket rockets. you may have also let someone with 4 4 or 6 6 see the flop cheaply. it's still too early in the hand to say it was a correct laydown. you could reraise back or call the reraise and check the turn to see what happens.

[John J]

Thank you for the replies, everyone. It did not even occur to me that since I was in BB, other players might assume that my hand is worse than usual. A call here on the flop would have been preferrable.

As for preflop raising, I didn't think that AQ is a strong enough hand to raise with when I'm in bad position. Would you raise from BB, but not from UTG, since BB is able to act last during the preflop action?

[ddubois]

I think it's about 80% likely you folded the best hand. He probably had AT or AJ and "knew" you didnt have AK or AQ because you didn't raise pre-flop. There's a slim possibility he had a set or A6/A4, but I'm willing to re-raise him and force him to show it to me.

[gergery]

Part of the value of checking AQ is that your hand is disguised and weaker aces will bluff off chips to you.

[Desdia72]

but the key thing is, EVERYBODY LIMPED. do you really think somebody limped with A K? i think that is highly unlikely. but you really can't tell because you checked to the flop in the BB. if somebody is holding A 10 or A J, their definitely thinking that someone with an Ace/bigger kicker would've raised PF if they had it so their hand must be good. as a matter of fact, not raising preflop may have let someone with an A x limping hand, i.e A 4 or A 6, see the flop for cheap in which they lucked up on a flopped two pair.

[Desdia72]

[ QUOTE ]
Part of the value of checking AQ is that your hand is disguised and weaker aces will bluff off chips to you.

[/ QUOTE ]

and another value of A Q is it's definitely a raiseable hand preflop where everybody has shown weakness by limping with their hands.

look at it another way considering other holdings. let's say you were in the BB with 5 7 or 3 2 in the same scenario with everybody limping and the flop hit the same way. you've now flopped a straight draw. what if somebody, regardless of their hole cards, raised preflop? would you call a raise preflop with 5 7 or 3 2. surely with the others that limped, there's a good chance everybody has a better hand than you.

even if somebody has an Ace with a weaker kicker, you've put yourself in a pickle trying to ascertain whether they do or not because you did'nt show strength from the outset.

[gergery]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Part of the value of checking AQ is that your hand is disguised and weaker aces will bluff off chips to you.

[/ QUOTE ]

and another value of A Q is it's definitely a raiseable hand preflop where everybody has shown weakness by limping with their hands.

look at it another way considering other holdings. let's say you were in the BB with 5 7 or 3 2 in the same scenario with everybody limping and the flop hit the same way. you've now flopped a straight draw. what if somebody, regardless of their hole cards, raised preflop? would you call a raise preflop with 5 7 or 3 2. surely with the others that limped, there's a good chance everybody has a better hand than you.

even if somebody has an Ace with a weaker kicker, you've put yourself in a pickle trying to ascertain whether they do or not because you did'nt show strength from the outset.

[/ QUOTE ]

To be clear, I recommend raising with AQ. My point was that once you have checked however, you have value when the A or Q flops and if you're going to run at the first sign of a raise then why bother playing them at all.