Playing A Q

[MilwaukeeBull]

In a live tourney, with about 40 people left (20 get paid, I am sitting with about 17k, with average around 25k. Blinds are 1000/2000. I am in mid position and catch A Q. UTG + 1 (chip size around 40k)had raised the bet to 8000 (second hand in a row he made this raise). It is folded to me. I pushed all in. I had played with him before and knew his raise meant he had anywhere from a small pair to A K through A 10. He would raise a higher pair a smaller amount. Ends up he had A K and knocked me out when the K hit on the river and filled the nut flush to boot (flop had a Q).

Knowing the 10x rule, was the push the right play? I didn't think it made sense to call half my stack to see a flop and then push. There is a good chance he pushes on the flop anyway. Was there a better way to play this hand?

[Lloyd]

My general rule of thumb is not to push with AQ after a raise, especially from early position. It is too easily dominated. I agree that a call is not in order. So, I'd fold.

I want to be the one initating aggression and not following up on someone else. You pretty much know he's going to call you so at BEST you're a coin flip and quite possibly a huge dog (against AA, KK, QQ, or AK). There's a simple but powerful concept that Sklansky talks about called "The Gap" that essentially says you need a much better hand to call a raise with than to make a raise yourself. This is a perfect example. I'd push with AQ if I was the first to act, but it's not good enough (for me) to call (or re-raise) with. When you push with AQ, only you know it's AQ. Others have to give you credit for possibly have a big pair or AK. So the uncertainty is on their part. This gives you an advantage that is not present when you're doing the calling (or re-raising when you're likely to get called).

But again, you're playing against people so you've got to go with your gut sometime.

[gergery]

If you put him on that range, then you are probably even money vs. his range of hands getting a slight overlay. If you push, he’s getting 3:1 on a call, so you have very little fold equity. So push is probably slightly better than fold as EV on this hand, but not by much. Fold might be better depending on how easy it is to steal blinds at this table, and whether you can get paid off with big hands.

But flat calling his raise with the intention of getting all your chips in on the flop might be best option. He should fold the better hand reasonably often if he has low-mid pair and flop comes with overcards. Depends on whether you think a call will bring in some other limpers after you both, and whether you think he could fold if he misses then checks on flop.

Net, I probably like fold best, followed very closely by push, with the call/get chips in a 3rd choice .

--Greg

[SossMan]

I think it's pretty close between pushing and folding at this stage. One thing to note is that when a player raises two hands in a row the exact same amount from a non-steal position, he very often has a raiseworthy hand the 2nd time (especially if it was folded to his raise preflop last time, or he showed down a non-raiseworthy hand). There are, of course, exceptions, but this is a pretty reliable read.
All in all, I usually err to the side of aggression due to the top heavy payout structures, so I'd probably push there too, but a fold isn't hellacious.