1st Hand, A Q-suited: Who Makes This Call Preflop?

[Desdia72]

[ QUOTE ]
What it the buy-in?

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the buy-in is $5 + $.50 so you know these are'nt the most brightest players in the poker world. a lp raise on the first hand of the SNG at this level does'nt announce anything. with the blinds this low, players are willing to call 60/80/100 raises with less than premium hands just to catch something. i was playing in a 2-table SNG the other day with A Q-suited in lp and raised pf with two callers. the flop hit Q Q 7. the guy to my left bet strong into the pot, the other caller to his left reraised him, and i'm like, "what the hell is going on?" seeing as how i had both of them covered, i go over the top all-in. the guy to my left calls and the caller to his left calls. the guy to my left turns over 7 7 for a fullhouse on the flop and the other guy turns over Q 4o. a 4 hits on the turn and the river is an x card giving the guy with Q 4o the nut fullhouse and bouncing the guy with 7 7 out of the SNG altogether. the guy called a preflop raise with Q 4o and ended up beating both of us. his explaination, "you gotta take chances".

[SmileyEH]

the question was whether to raise with AQs not to call a raise with it.

-SmileyEH

[Desdia72]

[ QUOTE ]
the question was whether to raise with AQs not to call a raise with it.

-SmileyEH

[/ QUOTE ]

no, the question was who calls this raise preflop with A Qs?

[lastchance]

You really can't call this here. You know that, I know that, everyone knows that. I call with 22, here, but not AQ. The problem is when you hit AQ most of the time, you only have top pair or the nut flush draw.

I just think the call gets you into trouble too many times for it to be profitable.

[Jason Strasser]

My god!!!!

Save me!!! Without sounding like a snob, some of the stuff said here makes me sick.

1) There is no RULE that you must raise AQs here. There is no rule that you have to do anything, welcome to Poker. The 10xBB rule, well thats a guideline really. Heck you can bluff into a blindside pot for all I care. The key is that you can reason through with your move, and you can explain why it works. Hopefully your explanation makes sense.

I personally raise AQs here in the 200 sngs I play. That is because:

1) I generally do not respect limpers in this game with low blinds.

2) I have absolutely no problems letting this hand go on the flop, confident that the players who called my raise preflop were probably making a mistake calling my raise.

3) People rarely limp raise, and if they do I can throw my hand away easily.

However, I also limp AQo in my game. Why?

1) It has less value than AQs, and I feel like I make more money on this type of hand when an ace flops and a weaker ace pays me off in (usually) a small pot.

2) Limping with AQo can be deceiving. Sometimes moves like that, and limping with a hand like JJ can throw off some players who think.

3) I generally am much more comfortable playing a big pot when I have a hand like AQs which can make a lot of strong hands (like a flush), versus AQo which is just two high cards.

This whole AQ debate has taken place here before. I tend to hop on different sides of the fence, because there are good arguments either way.

But plainly saying, "You are an idiot for not raising this hand, you know better," is ignorant.

-Jason

P.S. In a 5$ buy in with weak players, I think a much stronger argument can be made for raising preflop. However, I think there are also counter arguments for calling. Heck, there are probably very strong arguments for even limp raising. Truthfully, I dont know a whole lot about 5 dolla sngs.

[Desdia72]

[ QUOTE ]
My god!!!!

Save me!!! Without sounding like a snob, some of the stuff said here makes me sick.

1) There is no RULE that you must raise AQs here. There is no rule that you have to do anything, welcome to Poker. The 10xBB rule, well thats a guideline really. Heck you can bluff into a blindside pot for all I care. The key is that you can reason through with your move, and you can explain why it works. Hopefully your explanation makes sense.

I personally raise AQs here in the 200 sngs I play. That is because:

1) I generally do not respect limpers in this game with low blinds.

2) I have absolutely no problems letting this hand go on the flop, confident that the players who called my raise preflop were probably making a mistake calling my raise.

3) People rarely limp raise, and if they do I can throw my hand away easily.

However, I also limp AQo in my game. Why?

1) It has less value than AQs, and I feel like I make more money on this type of hand when an ace flops and a weaker ace pays me off in (usually) a small pot.

2) Limping with AQo can be deceiving. Sometimes moves like that, and limping with a hand like JJ can throw off some players who think.

3) I generally am much more comfortable playing a big pot when I have a hand like AQs which can make a lot of strong hands (like a flush), versus AQo which is just two high cards.

This whole AQ debate has taken place here before. I tend to hop on different sides of the fence, because there are good arguments either way.

But plainly saying, "You are an idiot for not raising this hand, you know better," is ignorant.

-Jason

P.S. In a 5$ buy in with weak players, I think a much stronger argument can be made for raising preflop. However, I think there are also counter arguments for calling. Heck, there are probably very strong arguments for even limp raising. Truthfully, I dont know a whole lot about 5 dolla sngs.

[/ QUOTE ]

a spirited and insightful post.