AJ is my friend!! Part One

[ordinaryboy]

AJ i have heard been desrcibed as "the hand i hate the most" and "the hand i've lost the most money on", in general it does not get great press.

As i have a little time on my hands i thought that i would attempt to defend poor old little AJ by explaining how i play this 'troublesome' hand. In my opinion i believe that if you play AJ correctly pre-flop it eliminates most of the problems you face post-flop. This rant will be split into 3 parts, the first part will look at the big mistake of calling a pre-flop raise with AJ, part two will look at how to play AJ pre-flop in early and middle position whilst the final part will deal with playing AJ pre-flop in late position.

Now i think the biggest mistake that is made and probably the most discerning factor of why AJ gets slammed so much is because people do not lay it down pre-flop when there is a raise either before or after. Now most people will think i'm not bringing any startling new fact by saying this but people still do it.

A pre-flop raise generally (obviously dependant on the player making the raise) tells the table that "i have AA-JJ or Ak/Aq", the latter the raise, the fewer the players and the tighter the table we might add other hands but for the moment we will assume these hands. Obviously AJ sucks amazing balls against all these hands say the flop is Jxx can you be sure that the pre-flop raiser hasnt got AA-JJ and is beating you. Also say the flop is Axx can u say for sure that the pfr hasnt got AA, AK, AQ no you cant so your in an awful predicament, so what are we looking for here 2 pair maybe, that still leaving the horrible thought of them having AA or JJ, therefore i believe that you should only call a pfr if you have the following criteria:

1. It is/is going to be a multi-way pot
2. You have position on pfr and most if not all of the others callers.
3. Your AJ is suited
4. The pfr has a high pfr% and a high VP$IP%

Anyway thats the basic stuff which i imagine most people already do.

Any criticism of this please tell me as criticism and discussion can only further mine, yours and other readers play. Part 2 will follow soon and will be perhaps a little less orthodox i will also try to answer any responses then

thank you

[BradleyT]

Curious, what's your BB/100 with AJ?

[TrailofTears]

Can you elaborate on the benefits of playing AJ after a PF raise in a multiway pot? That sounds like a nightmare to me.

[ordinaryboy]

Ok in answer to the questions before i only have a sample size of 10k on pokertracker and in this i have played AJs and AJo 125 times making a profit of $320 with a which is a BB/hand of 1.25 i think. Whether this is good or not i am unsure as i have not fully grasped all the stats in pokertracker but it is a profit. (i am unsure if pt takes into account the rake when determining profit or whether this matters).

Regarding why it is good to play multi-way pots. This is a good question and i will be contradicting myself later by saying that you only want to play heads up or at most 3 people with AJ, however my reasoning behing it was because you are getting better odds if there are more people. For example:

you limp $1, player 1 raises $3, 3 players call the raise, now there is $13-14 in the pot which is giving you 6-7 to 1 odds to call that extra $2, this was my reasoning, altho i do agree it is a bit shaky.

Anyway i like playing AJ because generally i know that if there is no raise pre-flop i have a top hand, my theory is based on people raising with AA-JJ and Ak, Aq. If there are no raises then i believe that i will have a strong hand if a favourable flop comes.

Now in early-mid position i will limp in 75% of the time with AJ, i will always try to have good reads on how people play, in particular i look for players who limp in with AA, KK. I will also look for players who dont raise with ak/aq in the blinds as these are dangerous players to me.

Now after i limp there will generally be 3-5 players in the pot if i get a Axx or Jxx flop i will play it exactly the same way had i AK and it was a Axx or Kxx flop. Betting strong making 2/3rds to pot sized bets. Now people may say someone else could have flopped 2 pair or a set but you have to be aware of that on every hand be it AA QQ or Ak so AJ is not at fault the situation is to blame.

Now because i did not raise pre-flop i often get action from people playing A10, A9, KJ etc.. and then you also get the muppets who call pot sized bets with flush draws. This is where i make my money, in early position because of the lack of pfr i can be confident in my hand just like it was AK or AA on a kxx flop.

Of course if i miss the flop i am folding my aJ and have lost my 50c or $1 but in general i feel that due to the lack of raise i get far more people calling me down than i would say if i had raised with ak and got a axx flop where because of my pfr they respect my hand more and fold.

Anyway a few ideas there i look forward to your criticism

cheers