Out of position with the worst hand

[rtucker5]

I was playing in a juicy online game last night when the following hand came up against a known opponent. I open raised in EP with AQo and it folded to him and he 3 bet in LP. It was folded back to me. A little info on this player. He is a very good player and someone I like to stay away from. He generally plays fairly straightforward, but likes to mix it up and get tricky against me. His 3 bet means he has a good hand. I can narrow it down to AK or AA-TT, nothing else.

Question #1, does anyone fold AQo here knowing I'm out of position with the worst hand?

I chose to call and the flop came A 8 4 rainbow. I check raised and he called. When he called the checkraise on the flop I knew he would raise the turn somewhere around 99% of the time.

Question #2, what is the best plan for the rest of the hand?

As it played out, I bet the turn and called his raise when a 9 fell. The river went check check and my hand was good.

I tend to go into a shell and check and call with AQ when a good player shows strength and I have flopped top pair. Is this a leak I need to fix, or is this normal?

[Ed Miller]

Folding is terrible. The most obvious reason is that once your tricky opponent sees you fold once in this spot, I can guarantee that you will be 3-bet much more often by him than you had in the past. That is definitely not a good thing.

As for how to play AQ when an ace flops and you have been 3-bet, you are in a situation where you are either way ahead or way behind. Choose your play accordingly.