50NL players - Fix my AQo (full ring)

[punter11235]

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I play it very much like AKo. Raise 5xbb pre utg

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AQo is not raising hand UTG. Fold is much better than raise, trust me. Limp is normal.
I think raising with AKo is bad too but 95% of players disagree with me so dont take this advice to your heart [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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If there is like 5 limpers ahead and I'm in late position I chicken out and limp

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Why ? This is the spot to raise. At least there is some money in the pot and nobody showed much strength + you have position.

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I fold to all reraises.


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Good.

Generally you dont want to be out of position in raised pot with medium strength drawing hand like AQo. As simple as that.

Best wishes

[element00]

13k hands isn't enough to have a big enough database to see if you're playing it incorrectly anyway.

[Skuzzy]

I can see your point, and respect it but....

Just when do you start to give it value and see it moving into the +EV column?

What hands will you raise UTG or in EP with?

I've seen discussions lately advocating limping QQ, AK upfront. This seems to give up too much primarily because you then have to limp in AA and KK or raise with random hands to insure your big hands are not easily readable. why not just play a reasonable range of hand up front for a raise?

Playing AQ up front for a raise gets my AA, KK and AK hands called (at least sometimes). AQ may not be gold but it has some potential, and given the relatively small group of hands it belongs to that I do raise up front it's still a hard hand for anyone to play against without hitting a monster. Against monsters AA is a bigger risk than AQ. To some extent, whereas AA is good for winning a small pot or losing a big one, AQ is good for winning a small pot period.

How far off the mark am I with this thinking?

[punter11235]

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How far off the mark am I with this thinking?

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Way off. Position is just too important in 100BB stacks NL.
Raising with AK and AQ UTG (especially to 5BB) is -EV. Maybe in some bigger games it changes (cause you may be happy to win the blinds and ppl will give you more credit after the flop) but its certainly bad in SSNL.
Even if your opponents call with pocket pairs and fold everything else you will lose money playing AK for a raise UTG.

Best wishes

[soah]

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What hands will you raise UTG or in EP with?

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None.

edit~

I don't play at NL50 though.

[Skuzzy]

I play about 16% of my hands outside the blinds and raise about 5% preflop. If I start dumping AK aswell i get even tighter and TBH I dont see there being much else I can replace it with. It seems someone is always recommending that you "dont play" a hand. I could do with some good advice on expanding my starting hands for a change.

[soah]

The best player that I used to play with at my B&M game almost never raised preflop. And he absolutely killed the game. If you can get your monsters paid off in unraised pots, then why bother building the pot preflop when your edge is smaller? Your actions should always be based upon the game conditions. If the game is a limp-fest, then take flops and use your superior hand-reading to make money postflop. In tighter games where raises get too much respect, then you can buy pots from LP.

But raising up front just sucks. Your goal is to win huge pots, and unless you are good at flopping sets, you're going to be winning small pots or being put to the test in big pots.

[RED FACE]

Awesome! Thank you all very very much. I'll be working on it.