Not raising AQ offsuit on the button.

[Lawrence Ng]

Played a local 4-8 game 2 days ago. It was perhaps the most loose-passive game ever. Hardly a raise preflop.

After 5 limpers came in I had AQ offsuit on the button and raised....

Then something inside of me struck:

In HPFAP, page 161 Sklanksy states -

Suppose you start with A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

You should not raise with this hand in many siutations because of a variety of reasons. First, you give your hand away. Second, let's say 4 people limp in and you are on the button. You should probably not raise. Now let's say the flop comes:

T [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

.... And by not raising you are more likely to have someone bet into you, and if you do flop an ace or a queen you can raise and force people who would otherwise have called, getting their price.

One of the problems with raisng with this hand is that everyone checks to you on the flop, you bet (assuming you make a pair), and they are getting the proper price to call you with middle or bottom pair (assuming they have a different kicker) So they are no longer making a mistake on the flop when they call you.

However on page 83 of SSHE, Ed Miller states in his chart that if a player is one off the button or on the button that they should raise AQ offsuit.

So should I raise AQ in late position in a loose game or not?

Lawrence