Lost with Aq, what should i have done or was it unaviodable?

[maropoly]

a 33 nl mult at pp a few days ago. field was about 1260. I have about 1200 chips and there are 543 people left. blinds are 30 60. I have AQ unsuited UTG. i cold call, trying to mix up my game. no callers intil mid position caller. A guy pushes two away from button with about 255 chips left. the rest fold to me. i call. mid postion cold caller calls. pot is about 700. flop comes 6 8 Q all rainbow. i am first to act, i push right awy with my remander chips(about 950 or so). he has about 50 chips more then me. mid position calls right away. he has 10 8 offsuit. catches a 10 o n turn... did i play it wrong? did i represent a weak hand or didnt represent a strong hand? feed back please <font color="orange"> </font>

[Rakkad]

I would have raised preflop to 150 or 180, AQo out of position in what could be a multi way pot is much fun.

Other than that, push is fine on the flop, just got unlucky that he caught a second pair, it happens.

[Potowame]

Well I think If you had only one other limper in the pot to worry about you should have, Pushed preflop, or folded.

Other than that, this is not a good hand to make your first post with, a bad beat post. I hear sirens.

[Pakman]

I agree with your play... until the bet on the flop. If you raised with AQ UTG preflop and someone reraise a large sum then what can you do with it other then fold. You don't know if you are against AA or KK or AK. The best you are hoping for if someone raise you is JJ - 88 which you are still a slight dog. If someone raise behind you, by you betting AQ UTG you turned a perfectly good hand to damn near unplayable... early in a MT tour. Might as well come in firing with 23 UTG and try to pick up the blinds and if someone reraise you then you can release it without hesitation. So limping with AQ is a perfectly good play UTG.

However, the flop was not threatening at all. Q86. Someone had to play a 79 to have a draw worth calling so there is no pt. in risking your whole stack just to kill the hand. Some bastard might of flopped trips with 88 or 66. If you fired say 250 or 300. That was good enough to bet out any draws. You might of still been able to release the hand when the 10 hit because QT is a playable hand in mid position, so when the bastard bet you would have to think twice about calling. Of couse he had T8, but you wouldn't know what he had at the time.

Here is another one I picked up. If you bet out fast, some bastards don't think thru their action and they make snap stupid decisions. I don't think he would of called with 2nd pair with a T kicker if he actually thought about it. So if you took a bit of time like 2 sec. then went all in and allow him time to process what the fxxx he actually had, he might of folded. I'm assuming you wanted to kill the hand on the flop and that is why you went all in. Not that the all in was a bad play because you were the favorite in the hand and should of won statistically. However, jeopordizing your whole stack on top pair before you hit $ is risking too much I think. My humble opinion anyway.

[The4thFilm]

Unless you're playing with pros for 12 hours at a time there is no need to "mix up your game".

[betgo]

When someone is allin you generally don't bet as a bluff. You usually only get called if you are beaten, and if you bluff the other person out, you still have to beat the allin player.

Even if you weren't up against a fish playing T8, you would normally put your opponent on a pp or AK: in either case you would be beaten. If you knock your opponent out, you still haven't won the hand.

You could have gone allin over the top preflop. This is dangerous, but not as dangerous as going allin postflop. You also didn't have to call the allin out of position. Flat calling wasn't bad, but then you don't bet the flop unless you hit something.

Limping UTG with AQ is not a bad play. However, one reason for doing it is that AQ is not that strong a hand with shallow money.

I agree there is more advantage to mixing up your play against pros, but being unpredictable can cause your opponents to misread your hand. You definately have to do it in any one on one match.

You seem to have confused both your opponents and yourself by limping, but not in a way that benefitted you.

[fnurt]

bad beat police pls!

[betgo]

Bad beat police???? This was bad play. The push on the flop was terrible.

[over_c]

Why are you assuming the short stack had a big hand? He only had 5 BB in his stack. Two limpers to him, he could have pushed with any two cards trying to increase his stack by 50%.

I think the mistake in the hand was pre-flop. After the flop it is very likely that the poster has the best hand.
AQ is a weak enough hand that raising with it pre-flop and just taking down the blinds is good enough.

Overbetting the pot on the flop isn't really necessary, but if he bets half his remaining stack on the flop, he is pot-committed. He almost had to call if the other guy comes over the top.

[betgo]

I am not assuming the short stack had a big hand, although I wouldn't assume he didn't. I am worried about the other caller, who is likely to have AK or a pp, or could have connected with the flop. You say it is better to push than bet the pot. Why make any bet when you don't have anything? When there is someone allin, you generally don't bluff or semibluff.

[over_c]

What do you mean, doesn't have anything? He has top pair top kicker on a disjointed flop. The other guy limp-called, so I doubt he's holding KK or AA. The poster very likely has the best hand and got a bad beat (where are the police?).

[betgo]

I misread it, and figured he missed the flop. I agree. There is not much point in the post then.

[fnurt]

the bad beat police will be charging you as an accessory after the fact /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[gergery]

You played it fine. I don’t like AQo UTG. Raising will rarely make a better hand fold and just gets rid of weaker hand that you want to stay with you.

After a shortstack pushes in you have 2 good options: Push, Fold. After 2 limpers button doesn’t need great hand to push there. Midposition is unlikely to have AA-QQ, or he should have raised. But he might have JJ-22, and you’d prefer to be heads up. Your limp-pushing represents a very strong hand, and he should fold most decent hands. However, if either has been pretty tight, or MP has limped with monsters, or if you were up against better players or a higher buyin, then folding is ok too. Calling is distant 3rd choice, and just encourages MP to come in with position and try to hit cards to beat you – you’re giving him 3:1 odds to see a flop.

On the flop, perfect – you have TPTK and should be willing to get all your chips in. Your objective is to get MPs chips in the pot without letting him draw cheap as any 6,7,8,9,T,J connects with the flop. So bet enough that he is making a mistake to call you. The best of the worst hands here have 8 outs (straight draw), 5 outs (2nd pair), 3 outs (AK), 2 outs (middlepair). 8 outs is 5:1 against improving on 1 card, so bet enough that he’s only getting 3:1 or so. His implied odds are your stack of 950+700 pot or 1650. So bet ~300-500 here, depending on how what you think he might have. Pushing just gives up too much EV if he has a hand like 99 that might try to bluff you, or a hand like 97 that might call.

--Greg

[maropoly]

forgot to mention, small stack had aq off like myself