AQo, I need help

AQo is by and far my biggest losing hand, I could really use some suggestions here.

Here's the latest tough spot:

Stacks:
UTG+1 with $30.60
MP1 with $34.45
MP2 with $37.80
MP3 with $4.30
CO with $9.65
BTN with $4.15
SB with $25.00
BB with $25.00
UTG with $30.50

Blinds: $0.00/$0.00
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to MP1:Q♣ A♦
Sklansky group 3
Preflop:
1 players fold.
UTG+1 raises to $1
Hero calls [$1]
6 players folded.
Total folds this street: 7
Potsize: $2.35
Flop:
8♥ 5♣ A♠
UTG+1 bets [$1]
6 players fold.
Hero raises to $3.75
UTG+1 raises to $13.60

Fold? Call? Push?

TBH, I'm absolutely spewing money with this hand.

what is the read with villain?
well i dont think calling is much of an option because if u just call ur going to have to put it in on the turn, so its push or fold here
it depends on his style of play, if he is quite LAGGY im pushing, he could be just overplaying an A 9 OR A 10
if it is a tight play im folding in a hart beat

but if u have no reads on ur oponent i would drop the hand right here, there are no draws on the board and ur really only beating a bluff or an overplayed A 10 OR AJ

Yeah, I gotta agree with the spewage action. And as played, I'd fold. What are we beating? AJ & AT & crazy air. We're not even getting good pot odds to call. Unless you have some super read that villain is a maniac, this is a fold. I think we're gonna see a set of 8's here pretty often.

Also, why the raise on the flop? This seems like a very standard WA/WB situation. Maybe *maybe* villain could do this with 67, but that's a very small part of his range. If there was ever a time to just flat call his 1$ bet, I think this would be it.

Also, keep in mind that villain's raise came from under the gun. He's representing a lot of strength in this hand. A set of aces or AK wouldn't suprise me either.

Just echoing here...

1) calling pf is a bit marginal but not terrible.

2) raising flop accomplishes very little. It's essentially a wa/wb as c9 mentioned, and we want to keep the pot small in those situations. Call flop, reevaluate turn.

3) as played we should be snap-folding. Unless villain's a maniac, which I doubt he is since you didn't mention any significant reads (please do next time), then we have to assume he's got AK or better here. Your 'average' player just won't do this with AJ or worse.

ChuckTs said:

1) calling pf is a bit marginal but not terrible.

Click to expand...

You'd suggest reraising PF then or just tossing the hand?

Effexor said:

You'd suggest reraising PF then or just tossing the hand?

Click to expand...

Well again, can we have reads or stats?

Assuming it's an unknown, calling and folding are probably best, but if you're calling with the intention of raising a flop like that, then calling pf is the worst thing you can do. I'm only reraising if villain is a maniac, really.

A relatively tag players utg raise is usually ~AQ+, TT+ or so, and we don't shape up well against that range at all.

At the time it was early on so no real reads.

His PT stats over the rest of the night were 30/2/1 and he only raised PF with 2 hands that I saw, which were AQo and QQ.


I just realized that I posted this in the HA section while I really wanted to do it in the strategy section. I was wondering more about the strategy and position etc of playing AQo, and not this particular hand. Hence the omitted reads and PT stats. The only reason I posted the hand was to illustrate how lost I am with this type of situation.

Well have you taken a look at general strategy threads like that? They usually end in "post some specific hands with reads and you'll get much better responses"...

Every hand is unique and you can't really give a general answer to a hand that has gone this far. Something like 'what's our opening range utg' is fine as a general question and you'll get general answers, but specific hands like this needs reads and stats.

Again, against an unknown I'd probably call pf and play postflop wa/wb.

The way I play AQ in a hand like this is entirely read dependent. If a nit is raising UTG, Im mucking this every time preflop, however if villain is looser and more aggressive Im 3-betting almost every time. I really don't like to flat call with a hand like AQ b/c it puts u in a bad spot postflop a lot of the time. Against a total unknown, I guess calling w/ position isnt too bad here, but Id probably reraise to ~3.25 to take control of the hand and gain more info. I play a more aggressive game than most though, so Im not really sure if calling here is the standard play.

As played postflop, like others have said, raising the flop just folds out everything you have beat and gives more chips to hands that are beating you. It looks like he atleast has AK here, Id say its an easy fold on the flop given that villain is an unknown.

Why raise his flop bet? You're just chasing away the hands you crush and giving money to the hands that crush you. If I know the UTG raiser is loose I'll 3bet here about 70% of the time, but without reads I'll call and use my favorable position throughout the hand.

fold.
u only have a pair...alot beats you

pantin007 said:

well i dont think calling is much of an option because if u just call ur going to have to put it in on the turn, so its push or fold here

Click to expand...

I disagree. If we think we are ahead to AT or AJ here the play would be to call imo. If we push he could get away from it (especially if he actually only has like A5 here). If we push here we get fold equity from hands we want to put money in the pot and calls from hands that we're way behind.

I'd 3-bet this preflop, but as played I go for the flat call on the flop. Keep the pot small here, as Chuck said this is a wa/wb situation pretty much.