Am I too timid or is Ace Queen very foldable to a reraise?

[homedog]

Hi guys. I'm mainly a reader of this site. Don't post too often but am working daily to improve my game.

Last night I was playing live in a 3 table tourney. Started with 2000 chips but around an hour into it I'm down to 1100 and blinds are 50/100. I raise early with Ace Queen off and a guy in middle position reraises me all in. He usually shows good cards and I don't think he's bluffing. I put him on decent pocket pair or ace king. I figure that I'm either a slight underdog or dominated. I fold and decide to pick a better spot for the rest of my chips but since a better hand never came along I woke up today and began to rethink the experience.

I have that Doyle line stuck in my head about how there are many players that will put all their chips in there with ace queen and they're not good players but they'll do it. Yet in the wild wild west that has become modern hold em, ace queen can often seem like a powerhouse against some of the garbage we see.

Was I too timid? Was attempting to win that hand a necessary risk towards advancing in the tournament? Or is folding a better option in the long run?

Thanks for your help.

[Yuv]

Folding to a re-raise with AQ is perfectly fine, but with your chip stack and the size of the blinds, I think i'm calling, and maybe pushing myself preflop.

[PFrese]

I agree with your fold. He most likely has AK, or a larger PP. Against ANY PP, you are an underdog. He could easily have QQ here. AA and KK he most likely tries to trap. I would most likely put him on - JJ, TT, QQ - all big trouble for you. OR, AK and MAYBE AQs, but unlikely since you have the Q. Yes he could be a donkey overplaying AJ, but...

Good fold.

It would help to know the size of your raise. Frankly, with 1100 in your stack and blinds at 50-100, it was probably a bad fold. The re-raiser has probably lowered his standards as well, with the high blinds. If there had been any limpers, you should have just gone all in. With 1100, I would raise to 300 and intend to call any all in. I think there are a lot of players who will come over the top with KQ or AJ when blinds are at 50-100. Depends on the buy-in, too, that's a helpful thing to include in your post.

[nsj]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with your fold. He most likely has AK, or a larger PP. Against ANY PP, you are an underdog. He could easily have QQ here. AA and KK he most likely tries to trap. I would most likely put him on - JJ, TT, QQ - all big trouble for you. OR, AK and MAYBE AQs, but unlikely since you have the Q. Yes he could be a donkey overplaying AJ, but...

Good fold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Against 22-JJ, Hero is priced in for the coinflip. Unless I know Villain to be an absolute ROCK, I'm not folding AQ with 11bbs, and as someone else mentioned, I may go ahead and push it in preflop.

Some info is missing. Did you raise to 300? 400? When were the blinds going up again? I think this was played a little timidly, but another more cautious line may be to limp, and either call a reasonable raise and stop/go the flop, or come over the top of a lone raiser all-in.

I guess, in conclusion, my thinking is that as short as you are, I think you want to get your chips in with FE here, and a standard raise from EP causes problems that way.

[JeanieJ]

Folding AQ to a reraise is fine in certain spots. Your stack is too small to be folding here, so you shouldn't have raised in the first place. You're either pushing preflop or folding. There is no room for making 3-4x the bb raises, you're leaving yourself with hardly any chips.

If my stack is bigger it's an easy fold, but given your stack size your chips should've been in the middle before the guy even had a chance to raise you.

[homedog]

I see the merits of pushing preflop and I find humor in knowing that I would have pushed preflop a year ago but this smaller 3x the big blind raise is me trying to play poker.

what hands are you gonna commit almost 30% of your chips then fold to a raise getting 2-1 on your money? AQ is a decent hand, even if you dont give him AJ,AT in his range, its still def. +EV. call in a heartbeat.

[nsj]

[ QUOTE ]
I see the merits of pushing preflop and I find humor in knowing that I would have pushed preflop a year ago but this smaller 3x the big blind raise is me trying to play poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure. But there's 1550 in the pot and it's 800 to you, so you're basically getting 2:1. Not a great place to be in, but the way you played it, you have to call.

[madmisha]

I would push preflop, and call the raise in your situation.