Took Seke2 up on his offer - (to his company's detriment)

[bobbycharles]

Fortunate for me, things are slow at Seke2's place of employ....so I took him up on his offer to do a hand history review.

I don't want to overwhelm him with requests, but if you didn't take him up on it, you missed out. Many thanks to you Seke2.....now to one hand that in his words "I don't like it."
(I agree with his assessment by the way.)

What say the masses?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

UTG (t23123)
UTG+1 (t11101)
Hero (t42540)
MP2 (t25180)
MP3 (t20344)
CO (t10362)
Button (t9230)
SB (t23738)
BB (t4495)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t1200</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 raises to t3600</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, Hero calls t2400.

Flop: (t7375) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero ???

[MasterE569]

Unless you know MP3 is real loose I'm folding to the reraise with AQ. I have run into AK or better too many times with AQ to see worth in playing it to a raise like this. I am conservative so keep that in mind.

[bestcellar]

I actually prefer a call with AQo preflop for exactly this reason - so that you can stand it if an opponent behind has a reraisable hand.

[MasterE569]

[ QUOTE ]
I actually prefer a call with AQo preflop for exactly this reason - so that you can stand it if an opponent behind has a reraisable hand.

[/ QUOTE ]
Im interested in what you mean here. Are you saying you limp in then call the reraise? AQ is a difficult hand for a lot of people and I'm always interested to hear how other people play this hand.

[bestcellar]

as played, I check/fold the flop.

as the way I would play it, I call 400 and MP3 raises to 1600 and I call. Then with a 2000 pot, check/raising the flop with equity becomes much more feasible, or even check/calling and betting almost any turn hard.

[bestcellar]

by raising early with AQo, you run the exact risk you put yourself in - playing a trouble hand out of position in a bloated pot on the flop. Not a lot of room left to maneuver. Dig?

[MasterE569]

Oh I dig and I like your thought process. Thanks for the info.

[bestcellar]

One thing that you have to be careful of is your opponent though. The tricky thing about making the plays such as the one I suggested is that with this flop, your opponent probably hit an overpair or an AK with overcards.

Is he the type to lay down a relatively big hand? This is where reading the player is super-important. There are the types of players who will lay down AK every time and the type to look you up every time. It's the difference between taking a line like I suggested and check/folding anyway, even with a smaller pot.

This is a really tough spot, maybe one of the toughest in NL hold em. It's situations/flop textures like this one why Doyle Brunson says he will never, ever try to play an AQ.

[bestcellar]

Also consider that any spade turn is gold for you, so you can consider those spades to be outs for you. You can check/call and hammer any spade and you will most likely win the pot, or be reraised with 9 outs to win.

[bestcellar]

Now that I'm thinking about it,

Say you limp, call raise on the flop. 3200 in the pot on the flop. You check/call a 2500 bet on the flop, 8000 in on the turn. Now if a blank hits, you think for a minute, then push A/I, and he might not be able to find call with almost any hand except a set.

The worst card in the deck for you to hit the turn would be a non-spade Q, because it broadways any AK, it gives another high pair a set, a straight draw to cowboys, justification for calling with aces with 4 outs to broadway, ugh. If like the 6 of clubs hits the turn and you bet AI he can't like his AK very much anymore and he has to go into the tank on any high pair.