I am bad at playing AJs ... easily my worst hand

[baltostar]

I have serious problems playing AJs in deep-stacked early tournament play. Specifically:

(1) when I haven't been getting cards for awhile and I have AJs in EP and I'm first to act

(2) when I'm in MP or LP or blinds with AJs against 2-5x BB raiser

In (1) I find it hard to limp since I probably have the best Ax dealt that hand. And if I limp I have a hard time folding to a single 2-5x BB raiser. Subsequently, I can not devise a good strategy for flop play if the A hits but not the J, or neither hits and no FD.

In (2), I don't think it's EV+ to re-raise (haven't run #s but that's my gut) and I find it hard to fold a hand which can hit the flop hard.

Is AJs a hand which one should look to see flops as cheaply as possible (up to say 5x BB) but lay-down easily if don't hit one of following: TPTK, 2P, trips, FD, and maybe Broadway draw ?

Interestingly, I don't have a problem in either (1) or (2) with AJo. I'll insta-fold it.

[erocplayer]

any offsuit hand that you're instafolding should probably be instafolded when not suited

[baltostar]

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any offsuit hand that you're instafolding should probably be instafolded when not suited

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Huh ?

[Cleverbeans]

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any offsuit hand that you're instafolding should probably be instafolded when not suited

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Huh ?

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What's confusing here? Two cards being suited barely improves their value and if you're comfortable playing AJo then play AJs the same way.

Personally I limp AJ in early middle position, raise it in late position. If I'm reraised on the limp I will call or fold depending on my read on the raiser. Post flop I try to keep the pot at a reasonable size if I hit an A and tend to be more aggressive if I hit top pair with the J. My goal is to generally extract value from A2-AT and KJ, QJ type hands so too much agression preflop will generally only keep the hands I don't want to be facing around. AJ is not a big hand, so I'm not trying to play big pots with it.

[MetalSpork]

I play it as above. Raising in early pushes out the weaker aces, which are the ones that will pay you off, and AK/AQ will force you to call a re-raise(or flat call, which gives you no information), and will have position on you throughout the hand. I also limp AQs here, for same reason.

This only applies to first few levels, where play is looser. I dont limp at 200/400+, unless I have a large stack, and ppl have been seeing flops cheaply (hardly ever)

[cheburashka]

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any offsuit hand that you're instafolding should probably be instafolded when not suited

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Huh ?

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If I'm not mistaken, he meant "suited" at the end, not "not suited". The idea is that a suited hand yields only about 2-3% more equity than the same hand off suit. For example, AJs has 47.6% equity against a sort of medium (for 4/180) MP open raising range of 77+, A9s+, KJs+, QJs, ATo+, KQo, while AJo has 44.8% equity. If 44.8% equity is an instafold, should 47.6% be a probable call/reraise?

Personally speaking, I dunno, because while the equity difference is tiny, it seems to me you're gonna get paid a lot for those few times the nut flush comes in and villain is on something good. So the difference in potential chips won between AJs and AJo may be significantly more than the equity difference shown by pokerstove.

Thoughts?

[Sherman]

You should fold in both occasions. Being deep is even more of an excuse to fold if you ask me. If you were shorter stacked and villain was more desperate, AJ might favor well against his PF range (or later in the tournament where a villain might be stealing).

However, early on with deep stacks, playing AJ is asking for trouble in my opinion. Here is the problem:

When you raise with AJs, what do you expect to get called with? Only better Aces and pairs are likely to call you. Otherwise, you just pick up the blinds. So I'd rather limp if anything with AJs.

If you are calling a raise, what are you hoping to make besides a flush or flush draw? Even if you make a top pair, you still have no idea if you can be expected to be ahead, and you don't want to play a big pot with it anyway.

Anyhow, with deep stacks, I'd prefer to stay way from AJo or AJs.

Sherman

[MetalSpork]

On calling raises with AJ, it depends on a lot of things, stacks sizes, position etc, but unless im getting desperate or have good read on raiser, im probably throwing this away. I could be wrong to do so of course, but ask yourself this:

What is raising here that you can BEAT?

What do you want to see on the flop? An ace? A jack?

Im making it sound like I throw it away every time I get it, which just isnt true, but its certainly a trouble hand that should be played cautiously.

[ChipSpeak]

Reading the title of the thread screams fold.

What Sherman said.
I don't mind limping AJs early and playing to hit big/fold vs any action, the reason suited is big for me is AJ has little appeal deep outside 2 pair/luckbox straight/trips, adding a nut flush to the implied odds increases it's playability quite a bit, I snapfold pf to any action, maybe it's a leak, but I'm not walking home on this hand this deep.

[pa3lsvt]

Here's what I do with hands I know I play poorly: FOLD. (When I say 'hand' I mean cards, position, stack, blinds - so I'm talking AJ, EP, deep, low in your particular case).

Seriously, the advice given above in this thread doesn't need anything added to it. But if I know I'm losing chips with a particular hand I fold it as a rule until I'm confident I've learned how to play it better. I find that when I trust myself to add it back into my playable hand mix, I'm much more careful with it and thus not playing it as unprofitably as before.