AK AQ Theory-question (preflop)
 

Online poker. The guy in front of you plays more than 1 table and he plays by the book. He is able to adjust if real fish or rocks are at the table. But 1 thing he plays always the same. UTG and UTG+1 he will always limp AJs AQo 88. He will raise 99 sometimes. TT to AA he raises 100%. AK suited or not he will raise 100%. No limpreraising!

The game is average. Some of the other players play a bit to many hands but nobody realy goes out of line.

You get AQs. The player in question raises. What would you do. (I assume that AQo is a fold here.) What do you do with AK ? Call or 3 bet ? Should i always raise if this player limps ?

one more info
 

i forgot. He will not play KQo but limp if suited.

Re: AK AQ Theory-question (preflop)
 

Fold if you are sure all he has is AA-TT, AK and sometimes 99. Your about a 2-1 dog against that range of hands, even with 99 thrown in.

Re: AK AQ Theory-question (preflop)
 

AQs: fold unless lots of other players have called (not possible in your scenario).

AK: His hand is going to be better than yours, so your advantage comes from knowing his hand well. I think AK will be playable here, and a reraise will be -EV EXCEPT that it may give you the information that will allow you to play the hand perfectly the rest of the way.

If he will never pay you off if an a or k hits (unless he has top pair top kicker beat), you should fold.

Re: AK AQ Theory-question (preflop)
 

This will go against some popular advice above (and I happen to agree with them, in CERTAIN situations) but there are other times when you get super-fishy tables when you know there almost certainly will be LOTS of callers behind you -- in which case, X players might warrant the call (where X is the number of callers you can expect). However, if on another table, where you expect everyone will fold -- and you have that good a read on him -- why play heads-up when you are quite certain (in this example) to be the proverbial dog?

In short: more information on the table is needed as "average" might lead to a belief to fold -- but some "average" tables might warrant the call...

More often than not, though, like they say -- fold and don't get yourself in with a guy who invariably has, at least now, a better hand than you.


Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com
"Life Goes Against Conventional Wisdom"