[Blarg]

On the second hand, what I'm thinking about is Bigbear in the cut-off with 695, a hair less than 7xBB. I dunno how thight he is or when the blinds are changing, but soon that will be 3.5xBB, and then after the blinds pass, he'll have only 1.3x the BB, and he's got to steal very soon. At under 10x the BB and the best stealing position on the table, babemagnet is going to have to steal soon too.

Also, the SB and BB are both big stacks, and are probably going to see the flop if the pot's not raised, and maybe even if it is.

So to play your hand, you're not unlikely to have to play a raise from at least one of the two people who have stack sizes encouraging raises, so you have to think about whether you want to risk losing your likely ITM place by eating a raise to play your hand.

If you play it, you may well have to beat the random hands of not just the CO or BTN raiser, but a SB or BB big stack caller.

So even though you probably have the best hand, to play it, you have to ask if you want to play it for a raise, and maybe against multiple players, out of position, and compare that to your chance to make money playing from a better position stealing (or even catching some more good cards) if you wait a bit.

Part of that would depend on how passive the table is, especially the short stacks. Your position ahead of two of the short stacks and the next lowest stack bodes well for your ability to steal after your blinds pass, in three hands, though you'll have just a little bit less to do it with.

I think you'll have better opportunities later, and the $100 you invest now in limping an AJ up front would do you more good to preserve for folding equity or to pay blinds later.

I tend to do longish analyses; somebody tell me if my ideas here are full of baloney.