AJo UTG sanity check

[AlphaWice]

NL Texas Hold'em Level:11 Blinds (400/800)
$1500 Daily Guaranteed
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: guymar ( $845 )
Seat 2: laneand ( $22071 )
Seat 3: prana69 ( $15585 )
Seat 4: buck1030 ( $25770 )
Seat 6: Hero ( $10600 )
Seat 7: pidandanmai ( $17256 )
Seat 5: AJ_Louis ( $19268 )
Seat 9: GLEGRAND ( $10470 )
Seat 10: iq7cd6 ( $22875 )
Level:11 Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Js Ac ]
Hero folds.

[betgo]

Limp or fold.

[Dave D]

why is this a post?

edit: I realized this was maybe a little meaner than I need to be. What I was trying to say is you don't give us any info, how far from the money, how the table's been playing, how you've been playing etc.

[Exitonly]

[ QUOTE ]
Limp or fold.

[/ QUOTE ]

is a raise really all that bad?

better hands reraise you, worse hands call...

so you find out where you are, and at these blind levels raises take the pot down more often than not.

[Hickboy]

More information is needed. How far are you in to the tournament? Are you in the money yet? How many players left total? Is the table tight/loose? What's your table image?

Limping is a terrible option with AJ UTG with these blinds. You'll miss most of the time, and what are you going to do if you get raised?

It's real close between folding and raising IMO, but would need more information to make a decision.

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
is a raise really all that bad?

[/ QUOTE ]

A raise is terrible with 13xBB. Are you going to fold 1/4 of your stack to a reraise? If a push is bad, a raise is bad. Too much chance someone has AQ-AK, JJ-AA.

Limping gives you a lot more flexibility. You can decide whether to limpraise, call, or fold if you are raised. Plus it looks like it might be a big pair.

I am assuming no ante or small ante. If there is 3xBB in there from blinds and antes like in some live tournaments, push or standard raise.

It is hard to comment on hands without ante, buyin, and stage of tournament.

[Exitonly]

Touche, i didn't look at stack sizes (yea i'm an idiot)

[mayesie]

You're getting a bit short on chips to be folding AJo UTG. You'll be in danger after the next blind increase. I think you have plenty of justification for going all-in here.

[eMarkM]

You don't say whether you're in the money or on the bubble. ITM or not, I raise here. Folding AJo is way too tight in this situation. Your M = 9. So you need to accumulate. The biggest stack behind you has M=20. Early on, I would usually fold or limp with this. But the blinds are large and the Gap at this stage is usually very large. You can hurt any stack at the table in an all-in confrontation so normally no one is playing back at you without the goods when you raise UTG.

Now, how much to raise? I don't like all-in here with 13x BB. You'll only get called when beat. I ususally raise 3X as a standard, but when the blinds get large as in this case I switch to 2.5 and it usually gets the job done equally as well. This has the advantage that you're not really pot committed if someone comes over the top of you and you can safely fold to a re-raise. Some will argue that you shouldn't commit that much of your stack without going all the way, but 2.5 raise is only 20% of your stack and in this case if you're set all-in you can fold knowing you're beat.

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
You're getting a bit short on chips to be folding AJo UTG. You'll be in danger after the next blind increase. I think you have plenty of justification for going all-in here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Without a huge ante, pushing is pretty suicidal. You will be dominated way to much for the blinds you steal.

Because you are short stacked, you cannot standard raise or push.

If you limp, you have the option of making an UTG limpraise, which could easily be AA-JJ, AK-AQ. You are much better off not committing out of position.

You need to play tight with 13xBB. After the next blind increase, you can loosen up.