AQ, AQo leak

[Amerretto]

Guys, guys, guys. Got tracker, and been playing circa 10k hands at 50/1, and although I am up in the cash, for some reason I always seem to be losing money with AQ, and AQs. Having spotted this discrepancy, how should I go about rectifying it, or indeed seeing if it may be down to bad luck.

Is it just a case of grinding through hand by hand, trying to spot mistakes. Posting the odd hand on 2+2. How do you guys do it? My only worry is that since I'm the one making the mistake, I end up going through my hands, and still think everything is fine.

What should I even look for. I guess:

Position played
Cold calling raises
Aggressiveness with my pair if hit
Calling with nothing

Is there any stats on tracker I should look at to get an idea of where to look. ie. filter for AQ, and look at specific tracker info.

Any suggestions.

Just posted this at my work, so apologies if I don't come back to any answers till later.

Good day to you all.

[SheridanCat]

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Is it just a case of grinding through hand by hand, trying to spot mistakes. Posting the odd hand on 2+2. How do you guys do it?


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Definitely post some AQ hands where you think you may have misplayed it. Post them in the appropriate forums and you'll get replies.

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What should I even look for. I guess:

Position played
Cold calling raises
Aggressiveness with my pair if hit
Calling with nothing


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Look for cold calling, for sure. Look for what position the raiser was in and how many players were in already. If you're cold calling raises with very few players in and the raiser was in EP, then you're probably making a mistake. If you're defending against a button steal with it, you're not making a mistake.

Calling with nothing on the turn/river is definitely something to look at as well.

I think position played is less important if you're the raiser first in.

As for aggressiveness if you hit, look at what kind of boards you're being aggressive into and see if you're overvalueing your pair/top kicker.

Good luck. AQ is a tough hand sometimes. It cost me dearly just last night and I violated a number of the rules I just spelled out.

Regards,

T

[Amerretto]

I remember reading a posting about 'leaks' made by a lady here, tried a search but couldn't find it? Don't know if anybody can remember it, and possibly have a link to it.

[Amerretto]

Thnaks Sheridan, will bite the bullet, and look over the hands over the weekend. I suppose like most players, with limited time to play, I rarely take time out, and go over my hand historys. To much like homework, but just irks me when I see one of the theoretical strong hands out there and I'm losing money on it, so better set some time aside.

[SheridanCat]

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To much like homework, but just irks me when I see one of the theoretical strong hands out there and I'm losing money on it, so better set some time aside.

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Yeah, unfortunately poker study really is study sometimes.

AQo/AQs can be an excellent hand, of course. But it can be a double edged sword. As I said, I misplayed it about 3 times in a two hour session last night and paid the price heavily. And I was fully aware that I might have been making mistakes the entire time. In fact, when I cold called an early position player at a tight table, I knew I was making a mistake.

After thinking about how badly I'd done with it, I reread John Feeney's section on AQ in Inside The Poker Mind this morning. That helped me figure out what I'd done wrong.

Cold calling makes me feel so dirty.

Regards,

T

[4_2_it]

I have to have an excellent read to cold call a raise with AQ. Many times, I will fold this to a re-raise if I am out of position. What hands do I beat if someone is re-raising me? At best, I'm 50/50 against an underpair or I'm in big trouble against AA, KK, QQ or AK. I have to know villain will re-raise with KQ or worse before I hang around.

My experience is that I win many small pots with AQ and lose monster pots. In my PT stats, AQ is not in my top 10 most profitable hands, it trails all PPs, AK and strangely AJ and AT (probably because I play those hands more correctly).

[Pov]

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Cold calling makes me feel so dirty.


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So if you had it to do over would you have folded or 3-bet? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Depending upon the player I can do either. I will cold-call and feel good about myself with AQs if I think I'm helping some other players get in the pot with us and we can be nicely multi-way (or if it is already going to be).

[SheridanCat]

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Cold calling makes me feel so dirty.


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So if you had it to do over would you have folded or 3-bet? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


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In retrospect, I should have reraised to get it headsup. One other player came along with my cold call and AQ three-handed just isn't very good, imo. However, had I known this player to be very tight, I think a fold would have been fine. I know the table was tight, but this particular player was unknown to me.

I lost the hand, in any event, but I still think a reraise would have been appropriate.

Regards,

T

[SheridanCat]

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strangely AJ and AT (probably because I play those hands more correctly).

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Good observation. I guess this is why AQ often get's called out for special attention by writers like Feeney.

Regards,

T

[Amerretto]

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What hands do I beat if someone is re-raising me?

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Repeat and Learn
Repeat and Learn

Think this could be my problem but will know for certain over the weekend.

It's just that they look so pretty, seems a shame to fold them to a reraise, if you have little read on the villain.

I can understand folding this preflop, but post flop, I often go into check call mode, if I hit my Queen, and no King on board. (Ouch did I just say that out aloud) Reason is pot odds are more favourable, and if I assume I've got 6 clean outs, (okay thats probably a bit high) then the pot only has to be say 4BB, before the call is correct.

Have to admit though probably overplay overcards as well, if haven't hit the flop. Another thing to look at. If I raise before the flop is it EV to raise after the flop to 2/3 limpers, to clean out the outs, and get it heads up. Again if I've raised after the flop, and am reraised I'm not dropping it there, because I'll just start to get pushed around on the table....

On the turn ok, I should drop it if I still haven't hit nothing, but again I'm back thinking about pot odds.

On the turn I keep thinking about Ed Millers post, about not folding for one more bet, perhaps I'm getting dangerously close to being a calling station. Shoot me now.