AQ vs a utg raiser

[schwza]

party $100. no reads. how's my line?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (10 handed) converter

UTG (t1000)
UTG+1 (t1320)
UTG+2 (t1210)
MP1 (t840)
MP2 (t565)
MP3 (t955)
CO (t1075)
Hero (t980)
SB (t1250)
BB (t805)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#CC3333">UTG raises to t55</font>, <font color="#666666">6 folds</font>, Hero calls t55, SB calls t45, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>.

Flop: (t180) A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">UTG bets t150</font>, Hero calls t150, SB folds.

Turn: (t480) 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">UTG bets t350</font>, Hero calls t350.

River: (t1180) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">UTG bets t445 (All-In)</font>, Hero calls t425 (All-In).

Final Pot: t2050

[Roman]

Fold pf

[ZeeJustin]

Fold preflop.

[grandgnu]

You have position, so I don't mind the call, it's not a lot for you to call.

On the flop, the UTG raiser is making a pot-sized bet. You've hit top pair with 2nd kicker, and you have a backdoor 2nd nutflush draw.

But, by just calling your opponents bet, you don't really define your hand to your opponent, or get any further information on his hand.

You can save yourself a lot of chips by raising him on this flop. He bets 150? You make it 350-450. This will allow you to see where you're at.

Instead, you played it passively and just called and called, never really finding out where you stood in the hand. The turn bet by your opponent pretty much commits you both to the hand based on the pot size at that point.

[Lloyd]

If the hero raises to 450 and the villain pushes, no way the hero can fold. Half of his chips are in the pot with only one likely hand he is behind. Just assuming the villain could be doing this with AJ (and early in a tourney I think that's a decent possibility, in addition to overplaying AT) the hero has odds to call the push. So by raising the flop, I don't think it does any good. If the villain has an Ace he'll lead out on the turn, or if it's a weak Ace perhaps he'll check but more often than not call a bet by the hero. If he has KK/QQ or some other pair, raising will certainly push him off that hand while calling the flop at least gives the villain a chance to fire another barrel.

With that said, my default is to fold AQ to an UTG raise. It's a dangerous hand, and it's tough to get away from top pair with fairly shallow stacks. If I think the villain is aggressive or could overplay AJ/AT and even worse Ax then a call would be warranted.

I think you most definately should have raised the flop on this one...What was your intention of just calling all the way through? If you are beat, you aren't going to know it till you've wasted a crapload of chips. You gotta raise it. First off you most likely have the best hand so far and if you don't the raise will "feel" things out and give you more information to base your turn and river play.

[kuro]

I'd fold preflop because you're in bad shape against standard range utg raises and you seldom get paid off with an Ace on the flop by hands in his range that you'd be ahead of.

If you do play it, it's cheaper to reraise preflop because you fold out mid pairs and you get away relatively cheaply from AK and AA/KK/QQ when they come over the top of you.