How to play Ace Queens

While JJ often betrayed me at 2NL, in my short experience at 10NL, this is by far the hardest hand I had to play. So a few general examples that I seem to run into.

Full ring playing short to middle stack 10NL
MP AQo open raise or fold? I heard it is a sin to open limp so I will not leave that as an option for now. Now say you raise and get one caller at the CO or button and the flop is rainbow and misses you. Do you check, cbet or call or fold to bet?

LP AQo you raise and either SB or BB (one of them) 3bets. Play or no play? Also cbet or no cbet and on what boards?

Also in general, what hands would you play against a SB, BB, EP 3bet? I have nightmares about pocket pairs.

AQ is definitely strong enough to open the pot. At these stakes you're going to get lots of weak aces coming in against you regardless of your raise, so you're fine there.

As far as cbetting and all that, it's really opponent specific. If the guy never folds to cbets, then I'm not pushing it. You make money at these micro games from players going to far with junk. There's no real need to force situations, trying to take down every pot. You'll do much better betting solid values.

The 3bet question is tough and again entirely depends on the opponent. I steal quite liberally, so if the player has made an adjustment and is now 3betting me wide, then I'm going to try and get tangled up in a big pot, because I'm likely getting the best of it. However, if the blind is letting you steal at will, and is now taking a stand, it's likely because he has a real hand. AQ probably doesn't fair well against his range...lots of micro players reserve 3bets for KK+ and maybe AK.

*Edit*

I didn't notice the short/middle stack part either. With a short stack AQ is phenomenal. I'm looking to get a good part of the effective stacks in preflop, to create a favorable situation where I can get my entire stack in ahead of my opponent's viable calling range. Short stacks want hands that are able to make top pair and then commit with them, so AQ is great. Hands like KJ and KQ also go up in value, and stuff like SC's or small PP's are pretty worthless since their value comes from implied odds, which you don't have short.

Right as with anything in poker there is no rule set in stone. However I would generally fold to a 3bet preflop even in LP with AQ. Like I said earlier I just find not having top kicker that much harder to make decisions with.

Also to the matter of short stack, I think I should have been more specific. In a game where most would sit down with 10, I would usually buy in with only 5. So I would hover around this area. But there is no way you will find me playing KJ period. Even if its suited I would only flush mine in a cheap multiway pot. Getting dominated twice, there is no need for that.

BLieve said:

Full ring playing short to middle stack 10NL
MP AQo open raise or fold? I heard it is a sin to open limp so I will not leave that as an option for now. Now say you raise and get one caller at the CO or button and the flop is rainbow and misses you. Do you check, cbet or call or fold to bet?

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Open raise, c-bet (about 50% of pot). If you get a caller preflop, he likely has big cards too, and the flop probably missed him too. Unless you have a read on him, a random opponent is going to give you credit often enough to make the c-bet profitable (at least 33% of the time). If he plays back, you are done.

BLieve said:

LP AQo you raise and either SB or BB (one of them) 3bets. Play or no play? Also cbet or no cbet and on what boards?

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Depends on the player I guess. If I assume they are a good player, I'm done with AQ if someone wants to play a pot against me over my raise (and out-of-position to boot).

BLieve said:

Also in general, what hands would you play against a SB, BB, EP 3bet? I have nightmares about pocket pairs.

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Depends how big the bet is, and its relation to how deep the stacks are. If I think set-mining is profitable against that opponent, I'll play them. Probably going to take the flop with JJ+ and AK no matter what. Can't imagine why any good player would 3-bet out of blinds without a big hand--I mean do they really want to play a big pot out-of-position? But plenty of fish at 10 NLHE.

GL GL

Mainevent thank you for putting most of my doubts to ease for now. I dont see any reason to play anything less than AK to a 3bet from the blinds.