Talk to me about AQ (general)

[sethypooh21]

Josh sez

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
playing AQ OOP in a medium-small pot doesn't sound like a lot of fun...

[/ QUOTE ]
AQ just pretty much sucks. it's good if a Q flops though

[/ QUOTE ]

In NL 6max, how true is this? It seems like the classic "too good to fold, too bad to play strong, what flop do I really like?" hand. I mean, if I decide to be a pussy, I can always play JJ/TT for set value. Nitty, but certainly profitable, I imagine. But AQ, wtf?

[4_2_it]

In 6-max, AQ really isn't that much different than AK. It misses over 60% of flops and is usually ahead on all A-high and Q-high flops. And if A high is good, only one hand beats you. It's only dominated by AA, KK, AK and QQ.

There are worse things you can do than consistently 3-betting AQ pre-flop.

[Josh.]

i obviously still play the hand, but what i mean is it doesn't play that wll in 3-bet pots except in agressive games where you'll get people to bluff at A high flops. it doesn't play particulrly well in single raised pots either because you don't get much action when you flop an ace. Q high boards are good though and you can play them strongly. but in general you're goingto win a lot of small pots with it

[DeathDonkey]

That said if you are all in preflop with AQ you will be dominated soooo often, really if you play for stacks with AQ preflop you are turning your hand into Ax which can be ok but just realize as soon as its stacky-time, your decision with AQ is the same as a decision with A3 for the most part.

-DeathDonkey

[Josh.]

[ QUOTE ]
That said if you are all in preflop with AQ you will be dominated soooo often, really if you play for stacks with AQ preflop you are turning your hand into Ax which can be ok but just realize as soon as its stacky-time, your decision with AQ is the same as a decision with A3 for the most part.

-DeathDonkey

[/ QUOTE ]


i agree that i dont usually play AQ for stacks (on FTP, stars seems to be pretty nuts and it might be right there), but AQ does do a little better than other hands vs typical all-in ranges

[4_2_it]

[ QUOTE ]
That said if you are all in preflop with AQ you will be dominated soooo often, really if you play for stacks with AQ preflop you are turning your hand into Ax which can be ok but just realize as soon as its stacky-time, your decision with AQ is the same as a decision with A3 for the most part.

-DeathDonkey

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, but most players at NL$100 and below are weak passive, so you get a lot of folds with a 3-bet. I agree that calling 100 bbs pre-flop with AQ is trouble.

Now, calling off 40 bbs vs a short stack is something I do with regularity (NOTE: I live to abuse short stacks.)