How's everyone play AJo?

[dacubbie]

So I'm teaching my roommate how to play, bankrolling him, and then coaching him. One huge leak is that he values AJo as an absolute monster. We then went over some situations on what to do with AJo which got me to thinking, what's everyones VPIP and PFR with AJo?

[michaelp]

I muck it in EP.
Raise it in every other position.
Fold it to a raise.

[ANY2CARDZ]

Mines 85 ive recently pulled this hand out the red, it used to be a losing hand for me. I will almost always fold it to a raise, but riase it up if there are no limpers. I still dont like this hand too much, and should probably lower my vpip with it.

Im not sure that's the right way to look at it. It's better to focus on WHAT to do with it rather than focus on HOW OFTEN you should play it.

(especially for a beginner because it will be AWHILE before they have a big enough sample to know if they are playing it too often or not)

Depends on what level they are playing as well. I'll raise with AJo most of the time if I am opening or if it's been limped to me. It's what happens from the flop on that matters a lot more.

Im at 65% VPIP and I raise 35% of the time with it, and Im posting a 3 BB / 100 profit. My sample is way too small though to take seriously.

VPIP 80.53 // W$WSF 54.88 // PFR% 56.64 // WtSD 46.34 // W$SD 60.53

thats after 113 hands of it. small sample i guess

I like the hand. I like it even more when it hits. I dont like getting 3 bet while being first one in with a raise. And I hate losing to AK with this hand.

My numbers might be a bit off, I think I have toned down my playing of the hand in the previous 50 times i've had it. but it still wins and is amongst my top winning hands, so i guess whatever works really. Just plain and simple to never, ever, ever, ever CC with this hand.

EVER

if the table is filled with bad players who will play way too many hands and play them poorly postflop, i think not raising AJo from early position is throwing money in the sea.

[Harv72b]

Over my last 20k hands:

AJo: 183 times, Win% 45.90, VPIP 82.51, W$WSF 46.71, PFR% 71.04, LwPC 1.09, WtSD 47.59, W$SD 50.72.

About 15k of those hands were 3/6 & 5/10 Party; the rest are a mix of lower limit stuff on other sites/donking around on 2+2 tables. I've averaged 0.15 BB/hand over that span.

In the 5/10 game that I play now, AJ is either raise or fold from anywhere outside of the blinds. That includes when it's raised ahead of me--if the guy has really loose raising standards or I see it is a probable blind steal, it's a 3-bet to isolate; otherwise, I'm folding. It gets trickier from the blinds...from the SB it's pretty much the same as other positions, but against a PFR from the BB I'll usually call 1 more bet and see what flops. Again, unless it's a probable steal attempt or I'm already isolated on a really bad PFR, in which case I'll 3-bet. Whether I raise or complete/check through from the blinds when it's limped to me depends entirely on my table image & how good the limpers are.

I will almost always open raise with it or just call...
I very rarely will lay it down preflop unless I'm facing raise and reraise from players I respect. In the games I usually play it is a raising hand.

[hexag1]

heres how i play AJo from the SB. a good hand from microlimits.
Party Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (10 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx (http://www.zerodivide.cx/converter)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, J/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, <font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (4 SB) A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, J/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 8/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB raises</font>, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, <font color="#CC3333">Hero 3-bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB caps</font>, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, Hero calls.

Turn: (10 BB) 5/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB raises</font>, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, <font color="#CC3333">Hero 3-bets</font>, BB calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls.

River: (22 BB) 7/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, BB calls, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 folds.

Final Pot: 24 BB

Results in white below: <font color="#FFFFFF">
Hero has Ad Js (two pair, aces and jacks).
BB has As 9s (one pair, aces).
Outcome: Hero wins 24 BB. </font>

[MyTurn2Raise]

I now raise with it from every position except the blinds (exemptions for steal and blind defense situations of course). I use to call or fold from EP, but decided I needed to add it to my repetoire. I'm also playing in considerably tighter games than in the past (bye bye party...hello whoring). I'm often likely to get it heads-up with the blinds or take the blinds in the 2/4 games I've been playing lately. If someone plays back at me (not a blind), I often need to hit the flop.

I think I do OK...I'm winning 0.26BB/hand with it.

[crunchy1]

I think you and Villian both overplayed your hands on this one.

[hexag1]

well i dont usually play it this strong on the turn, but you see how my opponent had been playing top pair....
i was fairly certain he had just top pair A. my read was that he would have just called the flop with a set.

[ncboiler]

I always open raise from any position. Fear a re-raise and tread carefully postflop if re-raised. Its a +0.52/hand with me after 461 hands.

[W. Deranged]

I open-raise AJo in any position, generally raise it behind a few callers, generally don't raise it out of the blinds, use it to isolate late-position and/or laggy raisers liberally, and never play it against a legitimate open-raise.

A good old school poker rule I once heard is: "If you can't play AJo in EP profitably, find a new table."

[ZenMusician]

[ QUOTE ]
"If you can't play AJo in EP profitably, find a new table."

[/ QUOTE ]

Very true. VNH!

-ZEN