AQ preflop

[DaveB]

Normal aggressive Party 5/10 6 max. Say 1 or 2 limpers and the button raises. He is aggressive but not a maniac and is probably a winner in these games. You have AQo in the SB. What is your play?

[naphand]

Easy re-raise.

This could be a steal-raise, so you have to make him think about trying this on. Even if his raise is genuine, he could be raising with a lot of hands you can still beat (AJ, JJ-88, KQ) with an A or Q high flop. Your raise also punishes the limpers and knocks out the BB.

Raise it, you should get heads up. Even if he caps, you're not necessarily beat. You probably want to bet the flop regardless, first in, to test his hand. I think he caps AKo and raises you on the flop, but JJ-88 and KQ are slowing down with an overcard. How would he play AJo to an A flop? I think the extra equity from the limpers more than makes up for the times you are beat by AA-QQ and AK (and you can still beat KK-QQ with an A). Against this type of player, I would not be surprised to be ahead here.

I had an almost identical hand to this yesterday and found myself against AJo, with an A high flop.

[Schneids]

I agree with most all that Naphand has to say here, however, I do not think most 88-JJ are slowing down if only one overcard flops. Most of the time, it seems like people raise here -- both to try to get a better grip on your hand, and to try to get a free showdown.

Anyway, I think the best and most important point of Nap's post is about the extra equity of the limpers. Unless the raiser is a complete rock that only raises AA-QQ, your AQ does well enough against the range of hands a standard tight-aggressive raiser holds here -- so you will win money in the long run due to the dead money in the pot.

[naphand]

Yes I suppose you can expect quite a few hands to raise your flop bet, with an overcard, but they surely will have to think when you 3-bet the flop showing an A with any of the lesser hands I mentioned? Your re-raise PF and 3-bet is telling them you have hit TP, and I would only expect a cap against another A, or overpair to Q high board. The opponent is not described as a maniac, so presumably he will slow down at some point, with a lesser hand.

Would be interested know how you (anyone) think his opponent may play flops that are Q high or A high. Against a re-raise PF he has to be worried about any flop with an A, K or Q unless he has TP. Obviously flops K or J high or rags makes life a bit tricky for our hero.

[Brian]

Hi Dave,

If there are already a couple of limpers, I call. You probably won't get it heads-up by re-raising, and you are out of position. But, your hand is definitely too strong to fold against a Button raise in 6 max. While his hand is probably legitimate since he is raising limpers, I'd probably raise limpers with as little as JTs in these games.

-Brian

[DaveB]

That's my feeling too right now I think Brian. 1 limper or less, raise, more than that make a kinda strange feeling call.

Thanks for the input everyone.