AJs with position (And I took a berating from this one)

[Gomez22]

Ultimate Bet No-Limit Hold'em, $.50 BB (10 handed) converter

UTG ($51.55)
UTG+1 ($11.75)
UTG+2 ($27.90)
MP1 ($43.75)
MP2 ($44.35)
MP3 ($49.25)
Gomez22 ($48.25)
Button ($25.85)
SB ($31.90)
BB ($76.20)

Preflop: Gomez22 is CO with A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. SB posts a blind of $0.25.
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $0, UTG+2 folds, The folds, MP2 calls $0, MP3 folds, Gomez22 calls $0, Button folds, SB (poster) completes, BB raises to $3, UTG+1 folds, MP2 folds, Gomez22 calls $3, SB folds.

Flop: ($6.75) 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
BB bets $7.5, Gomez22 calls $7.50.

Turn: ($21.75) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
BB bets $0.5, Gomez22 calls $0.50.

River: ($22.75) T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
BB bets $0.5, Gomez22 calls $0.50.

Final Pot: $23.75
<font color="#990066">Main Pot: $23.75, between MP1, Gomez22 and BB.</font> &gt; <font color="white">Pot won by Gomez22 ($23.75).</font>

Results in white below: <font color="white">
BB shows Qh Qs (two pair, queens and nines).
MP1 doesn't show.
Gomez22 shows Ah Jh (two pair, aces and nines).
Outcome: Gomez22 wins $23.75. </font>

After the hand, BB said: "Call a raise with AJ?". I just said, "Position". He then typed in lol.

My question: Was this really that bad of a call? I mean, I based it mostly on having position on him for the rest of the hand. Notice that I never raised the turn or river, due to fears of being out-kicked. Should I have raised here? After his turn bet, I was fairly confident that he had a large PP.

Taking into consideration that I had position and a HU pot here, was it truly horrible?

[1800GAMBLER]

Ignore position, you will usually only ever going to be dominated with this hand, so everything postflop usually has reserve implied odds.

Fold it preflop

[Gomez22]

So you're saying that position really doesn't matter here? That's basically what I was basing my play on - the fact I had position on the PF raiser......

And I thought position was of importance.....

[img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

'Mez

[Fistdantilus]

Position IS of importance... but think of the legitimate raising hands you can realistically beat: TT, 99. Any bigger ace, AA/KK/QQ/JJ pretty much has you dominated. Add in a bunch of people tagging along, and the position does become important when playing for the flush. Fold in short-way situations, call in multi-ways.

Fistdantilus

[Redmen62]

[ QUOTE ]
Notice that I never raised the turn or river, due to fears of being out-kicked.

[/ QUOTE ]

To me, this is the best illustration of why you should fold pre-flop. When the best you can hope for is a flop you can call down (short of a huge flop that you're not really getting odds for heads-up), muck it and live to fight another day. When you get an A-high flop and aren't dominated, you're not going to make much from 10's-KK, as was the case here.

[SpaceAce]

[ QUOTE ]
Notice that I never raised the turn or river, due to fears of being out-kicked.

[/ QUOTE ]

Which begs the question, "Why play hands you'll be too scared to extract any money with?" Don't play it unless you plan to play it hard. AJ has a lot of potential to be dominated in a raised pot but you played it, anyway. OK, we've all played AJ for a raise at some point and a raise online at a micro table doesn't necessarily mean anything. Now you hit your Ace and the pre-flop raiser bets into you. You call which I don't like. Raise his bet and see if he's really got a better Ace than you. If he does, fold. If he doesn't, make him pay you off. On the turn, he bets the bare minimum. This bet is absolutely screaming, "I have Kings or Queens! Maybe Jacks! I definitely don't have an Ace, though!" So, you call when your opponent was clearly quivering in fear of the Ace. Now your opponent bets the minimum again on the river. What you should be hearing is, "OK, now there's really no doubt about it: I don't have a strong Ace. Please make me pay to turn over my underpair."

"Come-on" bets are not made at the table minimum. If your opponent bets out on an Ace-high flop but wimps out on both the turn and river, your Ace is probably good. Fold pre-flop, raise the flop, raise the turn, raise the river.

SpaceAce