3 Hands from Tonight: Just to make sure.......

[Gravy (Gravy Smoothie)]

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I think a call is fine here. You could very easily have the best hand here, but not by much, especially because you are unsuited. You have too much equity to fold, but not enough of an edge to raise.

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I disagree. If you are going to play ATo you have to play it like a big Ace, because it doesn't really have any other value. Raising preflop sets you up to take this down on the flop a large percentage of the time whether or not you flop a hand. In addition, if you pair the Ten, it is much more vulnerable to overcards than a hand like AQ or AK making top pair queens or kings.

Joe, in response to your comment about 22 being the best hand preflop, it is true that you are (slightly) ahead of all other non-pairs before the flop. However, there's a relevant section of Lee Jones' book about "Implicit Collusion"...say you see this flop with 4 players who all have two random, medium or higher cards. Imagine they have, say, QTo, J8s, A9o, and KTo. If the flop contains an 8, 9, T, J, Q, K, or A, you are toast. Also, you suggest that raising may cause 5 people to see the flop, or maybe it will be heads-up. Much more likely is a scenario like 3 or 4 to the flop, which is exactly what you DON'T want with 22. Even if the table is weak-tight as a whole, I hate thie preflop raise.

[JoeU]

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Also, you suggest that raising may cause 5 people to see the flop, or maybe it will be heads-up. Much more likely is a scenario like 3 or 4 to the flop, which is exactly what you DON'T want with 22.

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I agree that I definitely don't want 3-4 callers, and I do understand implicit collusion from Lee Jones.

Lately I've been trying to become a little more aggressive in my preflop play. I thought this might be a good spot, although a thin spot, to try.

Thanks again for the comments.

Joe

[Stork]

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I think a call is fine here. You could very easily have the best hand here, but not by much, especially because you are unsuited. You have too much equity to fold, but not enough of an edge to raise.

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I disagree. If you are going to play ATo you have to play it like a big Ace, because it doesn't really have any other value.

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ATo is an ace with a decent kicker. It is probably the best hand preflop, but not by alot, so I think this is one of those situations where you should forego a slightly profitable preflop raise to induce more expensive postflop mistakes from your opponents.


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Raising preflop sets you up to take this down on the flop a large percentage of the time whether or not you flop a hand.

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Do you really think you are folding 3-5 .5/1 players on just about any flop?

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In addition, if you pair the Ten, it is much more vulnerable to overcards than a hand like AQ or AK making top pair queens or kings.

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If you do flop tens, overcard hands will be making a much bigger mistake by continuing if the pot was NOT raised preflop than if it was.