Lets talk about AQ....

[Dave D]

This is sort of an open ended post about something I was thinking about yesterday. How does everyone treat AQ compared to AK? Can you think of some plays you recently made, or just situations in general where you would play them differently? Generally I treat them the same, especially preflop, except I'm a lot less likely to call if it goes raise, all in, but with AK I'm calling there. I think in general I'm a lot more likely to just push AQ PF if I'm UTG with 15 BBs. With AK I might try just standard 3x raising there.

Anyway, how is AQ different than AK?

[The-Donk]

If you dont hv the lady luck and the Q doesnt show up you are sc----d.

[ssnyc]

when I'm short stack AQ looks really good...when I'm deep I tread cautiously...

[4CardStraight]

Well... The broader the opponents range, the closer these hands are to each other AKo, AQo. If opponents range is very narrow, then the strength is drastically different, as AK is screwed by AA,KK only and AQ is screwed by AA KK QQ AKs/o. Thats a significantly broader range of hands which bend us over, but compared to a wider range, like against the top 10 or 12 percent hands, they are pretty similar in power. One thing I will often ask myself with AQ is, "would my opponent likely be playing a smaller pair here" If the situation justifies them folding a hand like 99, then AQ is probably a muck. If they are *enticed* to play a hand like 55 due to their short stack size, accelerating pay scale, abuse of bubble effects, etc, then AQ becomes just about as good as AK.

Now with sklanskys gap, as soon as we have a raise and a call or a raise and a reraise, then our ranges narrow significantly, and the beginning of this post applies. As a general rule, I dont like to ever be third to the all in pot with AQ. It happens, like with a suited ace queen and Im short stacked late in a tournie, and a highly enticed to push player pushes, and a highly enticed to call player calls (like an uber short pushes utg and a huge stack iso raises or calls), then I will be third allin with AQ, but as a general principle, if two people have played at a pot preflop I can muck AQ, (although again I can call early on looking to flop a huge hand if I am in position and we all have deep stacks)
4card

[timmay28]

I'm becoming tempted to just start open limping AQ in the beginning of tourneys when everyone's M's are high.

[illini43]

[ QUOTE ]
...when I'm deep I tread cautiously...

[/ QUOTE ]

I LOL'd.

[MJBuddy]

I almost always play it HU exactly as I would AK.

Multiway pots, I tend to steer off.


Early on I play it slower. Smooth call pre, no 3-bets, etc. until about level 4 when I 3-bet with it.

[chopchoi]

Blinds 50/100. Hero has $3500 chips. Villain covers. Hero in MP2 opens for 400. Villain re-raises to 1000.

AQ- easiest fold ever.
AK- very player dependant.

[jtomon]

same can be said for AK and a K though.

[SuperUberBob]

My idea has been that the higher blinds are, the closer in value AQ and AK are.

Probably makes no sense, but that's how I treat them in poker tournaments.