AQ hand!

[Jakob]

How is my line?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (10 handed) converter

Hero (t965)
CO (t1845)
Button (t630)
SB (t545)
BB (t760)
UTG (t1015)
UTG+1 (t555)
UTG+2 (t270)
MP1 (t715)
MP2 (t700)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t125</font>, CO calls t125, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>.

Flop: (t295) 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t225</font>, CO calls t225.

Turn: (t745) 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, CO checks.

River: (t745) 3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, CO checks.

Final Pot: t745

I personally don't like to raise 4xBB pre-flop with AQs in MP at this blind level. Blinds aren't worth stealing, and callers probably have you dominated. I usually limp or maybe mini-raise and then go from there. A re-raise pre-flop has me thinking of dropping the hand and I play the flop with caution.

[GrekeHaus]

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Blinds aren't worth stealing, and callers probably have you dominated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong. At the lower limits people will call with anything. I had someone call my UTG raise with 76o the other night. Limping has its merits as well, but raising is certainly not awful.

The only thing I'd change is to scale down my flop bet a bit. There isn't much you need to protect your hand agaist (except other over cards). I think a continuation bet of about 125 is enough to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

[ QUOTE ]
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Blinds aren't worth stealing, and callers probably have you dominated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are right. Good catch. I should have said "may have you dominated." Still a significant concern.

[yabastid]

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Blinds aren't worth stealing, and callers probably have you dominated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong. At the lower limits people will call with anything. I had someone call my UTG raise with 76o the other night. Limping has its merits as well, but raising is certainly not awful.

The only thing I'd change is to scale down my flop bet a bit. There isn't much you need to protect your hand agaist (except other over cards). I think a continuation bet of about 125 is enough to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. And as for miniraising- it does nothing. At these blind levels it's horrible especially from MP. Almost no one is gonna fold b/c of a miniraise. 125 is fine, 60 is inviting speculative hands to take a shot. I HATE miniraising at lower levels except in very specific situations. If your gonna raise, RAISE!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Blinds aren't worth stealing, and callers probably have you dominated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong. At the lower limits people will call with anything. I had someone call my UTG raise with 76o the other night. Limping has its merits as well, but raising is certainly not awful.

The only thing I'd change is to scale down my flop bet a bit. There isn't much you need to protect your hand agaist (except other over cards). I think a continuation bet of about 125 is enough to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. And as for miniraising- it does nothing. At these blind levels it's horrible especially from MP. Almost no one is gonna fold b/c of a miniraise. 125 is fine, 60 is inviting speculative hands to take a shot. I HATE miniraising at lower levels except in very specific situations. If your gonna raise, RAISE!

[/ QUOTE ]

It may be that calling is better than a mini-raise, but I think building the pot with a huge raise with this hand at this point in the tournament is an even more terrible line. If you steal, whoopie! If you get called, you have to navigate the flop with care and, if you miss, have to place an expensive continuation bet.

In this spot I prefer to put as little chips at risk as possible. Too much to lose and very little to gain. If you flop an ace or better yet TPTK with the Q, then you can start to move.

[mlagoo]

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Blinds aren't worth stealing, and callers probably have you dominated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong. At the lower limits people will call with anything. I had someone call my UTG raise with 76o the other night. Limping has its merits as well, but raising is certainly not awful.

The only thing I'd change is to scale down my flop bet a bit. There isn't much you need to protect your hand agaist (except other over cards). I think a continuation bet of about 125 is enough to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. And as for miniraising- it does nothing. At these blind levels it's horrible especially from MP. Almost no one is gonna fold b/c of a miniraise. 125 is fine, 60 is inviting speculative hands to take a shot. I HATE miniraising at lower levels except in very specific situations. If your gonna raise, RAISE!

[/ QUOTE ]

It may be that calling is better than a mini-raise, but I think building the pot with a huge raise with this hand at this point in the tournament is an even more terrible line.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is a middle ground between a minraise and a huge raise. One of them thar false dichotomies.

My line would be to raise to 90-100 PF, bet the flop for about 120, which still leaves you with something like 700 going to the turn, room to fire a reasonable bet on the turn and still get away from a reraise.

So assuming he smoothcalls my flop bet, I bet something like 200 on the turn. If he calls there, I'm check/folding the river.

I think there's a difference between controlling the size of the pot and failing to isolate with a top pair hand. Case in point: I'm folding 22-88 (maybe 99-TT) to a real raise preflop here. I'm not folding any of them to a minraise. All of those hands now have you beat.

[wildzer0]

Looks about right to me. I would say CO likely has overcards in which case your in good shape or 55-99,in which case you're not. If you think you can push CO off an overpair, or he's the sort of donk to call with overcards, i might push the turn. I think you're good more often than not here.

Edit: I say this assuming a low buy-in, but you don't mention what the buy-in is.

[Jakob]

sorry it is a 20+2

[playtitleist]

What is Villain afraid of here? If you are Villain, why are you checking the turn and river?