AJs play?

[Stuck]

If you bet, the hands that will call are those that beat you (pairs and strong A high hands). Those that don't beat you (busted draws) will correctly fold.

If you check-call and your opponent is aggressive enough, the hands he will bet include both the hands that beat you (pairs and AQ etc) and the hands that don't beat you (the busted draws).

In both cases you're putting in one bet, but in the latter case your one bet has a more positive expectation. Or something like that.

[Nightwish]

[ QUOTE ]
this is a hand one should strongly consder limping in with from early position. Notice how hard this hand gets to play on the later streets heads up and out of position, yet the hand will do well in a multi-way pot.

[/ QUOTE ]
I couldn't disagree more. You have the 8th best hand in poker by Sklansky's rankings and the 9th best according to the 185K hands in my PT database. There are very few hands that are better than yours. In a loose game, you raise preflop for value because people will still call you incorrectly, and all that value you give up by not raising preflop will be difficult to make up for post-flop. And frankly, I don't see why you think this hand is so difficult to play even if you "miss".