$10+1 2nd hand AQ MP

2nd hand of a Pokerroom $10+1

1500 around the board. I'm MP.

Blinds 10/20.

I have AQo.

EP folds, EP+1 limps, EP+2 folds, I limp, MP+1 limps, folded around to button who limps, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop comes JsAc4h, 120 in the pot.

Checked to me. I fire 120 into the pot. MP+1 calls. BB calls.

Turn is 10d. Pot 480. BB checks. My stack's 1360. I check to MP+1 who bets 300. BB folds, I call.

River is a blank. Pot is 1080.

I check. Villain pushes.

Whu? /images/graemlins/confused.gif /images/graemlins/frown.gif

I'm ahead of all the weak aces. AJ has me. AK has me, and he could be pushing - but the pot wasnt raised PF.

Does AT call the 120 on the flop?

...

[tigerite]

He could have absolutely anything, even KQ for the turned straight, I would lay this down to be honest, I don't think you are ahead enough times to call this river bet.

I dont like my check on the turn, either.

What's the better line?

This is my first critique of a hand so take it with a grain of salt. But I have played my fair share of 5's and 10's and studied so I hope to have some knowledge.

I would raised pre-flop. AQo in MP is slightly marginal IMO. Too many people got to limp in and see a cheap flop. On the turn, I would have made a bet something like 1/2 of the pot or just bet the pot. If you get reraised. Fold. I personally could not call that all-in bet on the river. I don't like getting all of my money in the middle this early without a monster and that board seems to coordinated for TPGK to be a monster. KQ is possible as is some type of set but I think he hit two pair somewhere.
What do you guys thinks?

I'm not in the practice of raising AQo preflop early - I'm not even usually into calling with it that early, but that's probably me being too tight cuz I'm still new to SNGs.

I prefer to limp it and throw it away to a significant raise. I'm not comfortable enough with my postflop play to get away from TPTK when its beaten, nor am I comfortable playing overcards on a coordinated flop with more than one other player.

I won't start raising AQo early until I have a good reason to, and I have to learn that from experience, unless someone can show me otherwise.

-- yasher

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not in the practice of raising AQo preflop early - I'm not even usually into calling with it that early, but that's probably me being too tight cuz I'm still new to SNGs.

I prefer to limp it and throw it away to a significant raise. I'm not comfortable enough with my postflop play to get away from TPTK when its beaten, nor am I comfortable playing overcards on a coordinated flop with more than one other player.

I won't start raising AQo early until I have a good reason to, and I have to learn that from experience, unless someone can show me otherwise.

-- yasher

[/ QUOTE ]

I love the fact that you would throw this away to a raise, but limping in with this pre-flop is going to lead to lots of situations where you will have multiple opponents in the pot with bad hands trying to catch against your top pair.(Just imagine letting a J10 limp in with the board you described in the original post). If you raise pre-flop you will kick out lots of those bad hands and probably leave you up against a few hands instead of six. If your reraised, pretty easy fold. If not reraised your going to be up against less hands and post flop is easier. I'm not a fan of AQo myself but I find it an easy fold in a situation like you described above. A raise might not have kicked that guy out of the hand but if he held total crap like a Jd 4d you would have kicked yourself for letting him in. In the SnG's I play at UB people love limping in with crap like that and I find playing people that limp in with crap to be hard especially if there are six people in the pot.
GL @ the tables.

[Uppercut]

Fold AQo PF in Level 1

[diconoclastx]

I would bet less on the flop and check and call both the turn and river, provided there is not much action. Try to keep the pot small and passively early on with these types of hands.

I'm not buying something as simple as "fold AQo PF in Lvl 1".

I fold it a lot. I'd like to be able to play it at least a break-even level, because it'll be better for my overall skill than just tossing it. I know I can just fold it - that's easy. But that was hardly the question.

But you wouldn't be in this position if you'd folded PF!

Sure. But AK goes down to AJ just as easily here. And the donks are calling 120 with AJ. The hand merits a bit more discussion that simply "fold it PF this early."

Jeez, even my OP notes that I often fold AQo early.

Please. /images/graemlins/mad.gif

--yasher

I would fold and move on. You played it okay, but there are too many possibilities jumping out this early, and plenty of time to get those chips back.

He very likely has either A-J, A-4, 4-4, or K-Q. Too many possibilities, and the call on the flop of a pot-sized bet indicates to me this is not a bluff.

Let me correct myself. I don't think he had K-Q because I don't think K-Q merits a call of a pot size bet on the flop very early in the tournament. I also don't think he has A-K because of the pre-flop limp (although I got run pretty early in a B&M tourney last Sunday by a guy that slow played big slick on me).

I'd put the odds this way on his hand: 35% A-j, 35% A-4, 20% A-x, 10% total bluff. That would give you a 30% chance of winning, or around 2.5:1 against. From what I would gather your pot odds are about 2:1 to call. So, pot odds say no.

Overall, probably a close call but I would definitely muck at this point in the tournament. This hand is not worth an early exit.

He had AJc.

Yeah, I called.

It was a horrible call.

I'm still learning /images/graemlins/wink.gif

--yasher