[Sunny Mehta]

good questions Matt, this is a common hand in games I play so I'll give a few thoughts.....I see a lot of players take the following line on the button with AQ (and often times QJ as well): they raise kind of small-ish on the flop, then depending on what card comes on the turn they either bet small-ish again or they check behind and then either call a bet on the river or often fold to a bigger river bet.....I personally don't like this line - I don't know why, I feel like it's weak/sub-optimal.....

I almost always flat-call the flop in this spot on the button with $3k behind - the only time I'll raise is if I'm playing a total fish and I am commited and I'm raising for value to aim for his stack.....generally by flat-calling it gives me many more options on the turn.....if the bettor is weak, he'll often check the turn and whether or not he calls my turn bet (which I'll make with AQ, may or may not with QJ - but if I check the turn with QJ I'm definitely calling/betting almost any river), I know I have the best hand and the pot is mine....

but often the bettor will bet into me again - either because he has a very strong hand, or because he thinks I have a draw (because I played it like a draw and often will play a draw like that).....here's where I make my decision....with AQ and QJ, I may do one of all three things: fold if I think he has a better hand, call if I think he's the goofy type who'll bet/call a worse hand again on the river (not real likely line for me with QJ in this particular spot because there's not too many worse hands than QJ)....but very often I'll raise here in position on the turn (with both AQ/QJ): it allows me to take control of the hand, it puts immense pressure on my opponent and often folds out better hands, it gives no free cards to hands that are drawing fairly live, it acts as a value/blocking bet that allows me to check-check the river to showdown if I want, it often gives me a "free" chance to catch up on the river if I was behind, and if I get reraised I am 100% behind (and often drawing dead) and is an easy fold.....

I think the latter is a line that is inherent to live play because of how deep the money is and is foreign to many online players.....I've seen many good online players come into my games and play hands suboptimally on the flop and turn because they are not used to the difference in commitment points that occur when the money is significantly deeper.....