a j off

[kmbgolf]

aj off middle position a couple callers and a raise call or fold? Fairly tight table 3-4 people seeing the flop and were are all these loose tables im at pp and the avg people seeing the flop is always around 3-4

[SheridanCat]

It's close between folding and raising with AJo in this situation. You cannot call with this. You either want to be heads-up with the raiser or out of this hand. If you think the limpers will call your raise cold, you should fold. If you think everyone but the raiser will fold, you want to raise.

Calling here is very bad, in my opinion.

Here's a good lesson if you're just starting out. Often the best play is to raise or fold, while the worst play is to call. This isn't anything new, you'll read it all over the 2+2 books.

AJo is not a hand you want to play multiway as the chances for reverse domination are significant.

Regards,

T

[playersare]

large offsuit hands are very vunerable in multiway action. ideally this is a hand you want to open with a raise with no limpers to your right and play with just 1-2 cold callers/blinds at most. in your situation, you already have limpers who will have good odds to draw to straights, flushes and sets after the flop, and a raiser who fears none of them and will likely bet into you on every street.

you may still have some level of positive EV staying in this hand, but your chip volatility will skyrocket while at the same time your mathematical chance of holding up with a high one pair hand drops a lot. Depending on which strategy chart you use, I see at least 15 better hands to start off with than AJo...I would pick a better battle some other time.

[Nick C]

If I'm understanding your question correctly, two people limp and then there's a raise, and then it's your action with AJo.

Unless the raiser has light raising standards, this is an automatic fold for me. In fact, folding to a raise in front of me is my default play for AQo too.

The problem is that when there's a raise in front of you, the chances that you're against a better ace or a big pocket pair just went up significantly. It's no fun to have AJo when your opponent has AA-JJ, AK, or AQ.

Anyway, there are times to 3-bet with AQo and even AJo (against a light raiser, say, or when the CO open-raised and you're on the button and think he's trying to steal the blinds), but I don't think they're very good cold-calling hands.

If there hasn't been a raise yet, then AQo is a good hand to raise with, and at a lot of tables, AJo is as well. With AJo, your position and the number of limpers and the looseness of the table are factors to consider, but I think it's a raising hand for most of the posters here.