Talk to me about AJo from various positions.

[swope]

Ive lost some substantial pots recently by calling down AJ on an Axx flop only to find out I was up against AQ or AK, occasionally slow played pf or limped in bad position.

Classic example of me not being able to get out of the way; AJ in position against a pre-flop raiser, folded to me.

Flop AT4, rainbow. Turn was a 9, river a 3 or something equally brickish, with me calling every street while asking myself "wtf exactly do I think I have beat?".

Dude tabled AQ, and I knew I was outkicked *at best*, but against aggressive players, I occasionally see KK played just as hard.


Is AJ in late position a pf fold to *any* aggression from earlier positions? Would a raise on the flop have given me the info I needed to gtf out of the hand?

Curious how the positional wunderkind in this forum regard AJo...

[cgrohman]

This is a hand I almost never cold call with. I'll open it from middle late position, and fairly often from early position depdnding on the game. I'll raise with it from late position to isolate weak limpers. I'll even 3 bet it from LP or the blinds against over-agrro players who are raising light. I might even 3 bet an UTG raiser if he likes to open with A7. What I don't do is look down at the AJ on the button after someone has opened and say "oooo AJ, I think I will call."

[HOWMANY]

Playing AJ against early position raises in full games is a good way to not have much money at the end of the night.

[cgrohman]

[ QUOTE ]
Playing AJ against early position raises in full games is a good way to not have much money at the end of your life <font color="black"> </font> .

[/ QUOTE ]

[GreywolfNYC]

Cgrohman and howmany gave you the answer. Not much to add to that.

[floppynuts92]

AJ is the same as any other two random semi connectors.

[swope]

[ QUOTE ]
Cgrohman and howmany gave you the answer. Not much to add to that.

[/ QUOTE ]

cool, thanks all.

[jkamowitz]

Others have said it best.

Moreover keep in mind that when a solid player limps in utg, AJo is usually not even good enough to isolate. By solid I by no means mean weak, I mean that his utg limps probably consist of AQo, AJs, and 77-99, and the occasional AA/AKs.

[Sailboats]

What about a solid players raises UTG... everyone folds to you in the BB. You look down at AJo? easy fold? try and get lucky?

[jfk]

Assuming you're playing a typical mid-limit game at a place we'll call Broccoli Pete's, AJo is a fold to an UTG raise.

Per SSHE, a book which very much fits the game conditions in this hypothetical mid-limit game, AJo is a fold in the hand you described.

Were your AJ suited, Miller and Sklansky contend that you may make a rare cold call as the suitedness of the hand lessens the impact of potential domination.

In the Stox book (curretnly out of my hands and in the possession of another Broccoli Pete's semi-regular), Stox has you folding AJo to a raise from three spots off the button (and three betting AQ).

Early position raise notwithstanding, AJo is never a great hand in these fairly loose games. The off suit nature of the hand means suffer from reverse implied odds in a big field and you're typically going to see four or five to the flop.

As such, raise first in is fine, isolating a bad, loose limper late is reasonable, but raising when you expect a big field is something I now prefer to avoid in this hypothetical game.

Sklansky handles this subject well on page 161-164 of HEFAP.

My results improved in live play substantially when I started to take my foot of the gas preflop with non-suited Broadway cards when acting after limpers (not that this is your question). Calling EP raises with these cards would be a definite leak.