AQ Hand

Shaun · #1 12-12-2003, 07:03 AM

No limit HE. U have AQos UTG. Blinds 1-2. You have about 100. You raise to 10. A solid, tight agressive player cold calls. One other caller. Flop is A,K,Q with 2 spades. You have no spade, top and bottom pair. Last caller (one of the blinds) checks, u bet 20, then cold caller raises all-in. Blind folds. BTW, the cold-caller has 3 times your stack. It costs u about 70 to call. Call or lay it down? why?

nicky g · #2 12-12-2003, 08:18 AM

Assuming a full game, raising AQo under the gun in no limit isn't that advisable.

Here I think it's close between calling or folding. The problem is there is no decent single pair he could be making this move with, as a solid player surely isn't raising all-in with AJ or worse. The only two-pair hand you beat is KQ, which he shouldn't have called with if he matches your describtion. He may have top pair and the flush draw (you don't say which of the cards are the spades) or some sort of straight and flush draw, in which case you should call, but a set and top two are both likely (unless he would almost always reraise with AA, KK, QQ and AK preflop; you don't say). Because you're getting 2-1 and you say he's aggressive, I would probably call, but I think you'll lose here more often than you'll win.

crockpot · #3 12-12-2003, 09:28 AM

fold, if your read is correct. a solid, tight-aggressive player should have AK or perhaps QQ here, unless he was slowplaying KK or AA. at any rate, you are not ahead and don't have enough outs to justify calling.

Shaun · #4 12-12-2003, 06:25 PM

I agreed completely with you guys here. BTW, the K and Q were spades, so he could have the ace. Even still, I figured best case scenario he has AJs and I am not exactly an overwhelming favorite. Then I thought of AK, QQ, AA, KK, and even J10s. I laid it down. As it turned out, I made the wrong play- he had Axs. This seemed odd to me, but I guess because of his stack size he felt he could call the raise pre-flop as there were a few others with bigger stacks.

Thanks for the comments

tewall · #5 12-12-2003, 06:37 PM

"Assuming a full game, raising AQo under the gun in no limit isn't that advisable.

Here I think it's close between calling or folding."

I think it's a close call between folding and raising. If you raise, you can get away from the hand if you're re-raised, and you can hopefully knock out some hands which AQo very much wants to do. AQo doesn't want to be playing against a lot of players, especially out of position, so calling is the lease appetizing option I think.

I think folding is fine. AQo is a hard hand to play out of position.

fireman664 · #6 12-12-2003, 06:43 PM

I just dont think AQ is worth a preflop BIG raise from EP. Its not worth a call against decent players, and will make enough really good SECOND best hands that it could end up having a negative expectation IMO. Maybe that raise from the button to get rid of the junk limpers....other than that I wouldn't get myself to heavily involved with this hand in the first place, let alone 10% of my stack out of position. thats me though.

Shaun · #7 12-12-2003, 09:02 PM

I really don't think that AQ is as bad as many seem to. It can get you in trouble, but once you understand that it becomes one of the easiest hands to let go. Sometimes too easy, lol. As for the raise, it is big, but I want to either fold this hand to a re-raise and feel good about it or get called by a smaller pair and win a decent pot if he doesn't hit a set on the flop. My raise indicates strength and will allow me to win uncontested much of the time when my opponents miss the flop and i bet, whether i hit it or not. When you are up against big hands like QQ, AK, or better, you can often see this and let it go.

JohnG · #8 12-17-2003, 11:24 PM

50X BB stacks. Little dead money worth reaching for. AQo UTG. I think raising is the worse play you can make. I would limp.

Raising either wins a miniscule pot uncontested or builds a bigger pot with me usually out of position on later streets, and building top pair 2nd kicker. Regardless of whether I hit or miss, it's not my idea of what I am aiming for when playing big-bet on deepish money.

vector · #9 12-17-2003, 11:59 PM

[ QUOTE ]
50X BB stacks. Little dead money worth reaching for. AQo UTG. I think raising is the worse play you can make. I would limp.

Raising either wins a miniscule pot uncontested or builds a bigger pot with me usually out of position on later streets, and building top pair 2nd kicker. Regardless of whether I hit or miss, it's not my idea of what I am aiming for when playing big-bet on deepish money.

[/ QUOTE ]

50X BB is deep-ish money? I agree with your whole post, except on the definition of deep money. This is short stacked NL, and I would be much more inclined to raise AQo in this situation because of it.

TPTK is worth more the less you have. I also assume that shallower buy ins encourages looser play -- this is Party we are talking about right?

With larger effective stack size (100X+) I would limp for the reasons you describe.

JohnG · #10 12-18-2003, 12:25 AM

It's deep enough to make limping my preferred play, even against looser opponents. I will often get their money anyway when I hit the flop, and go bust less often when I hit top pair and they outflop me, and I get away cheaper when I miss completely etc. Considering all the possibilities, it's better to keep the pot smaller preflop.