Panel hand #2 - preflop panel review

[FUJItheFISH]

Take this one without any reads or stats microers. Party 50c game so you can make your general assumptions that villains are either too loose and/or passive.

9 handed and you are dealt A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] in the big blind.

2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, 1 fold, button calls, small blind folds, hero?


<font color="blue">Panelist 1
I have a hand that has all three of the hand strength considerations:
1) High cardedness
2) Suited
3) Able to make a straight w/ both cards

This should be an easy raise to start building a pot.

If the hand were unsuited, I'd just call since an unsuited hand does not favor multiway action, which we're getting her no matter what we do.</font>

<font color="red">Panelist 2
Easy raise preflop. We have a pretty strong multiway hand with good top pair potential. AJs has a nice equity edge against 4 mostly bad players and it can make a big hand after the flop. Not raising here is a major mistake in my opinion.

<font color="purple">Panelist 3
Against four loose limpers with a strong hand that plays multiway, I'd say this is a pretty standard raise, even from the BB. Yes, you'll be out of position, but your hand is so strong that not raising here means you're missing out on a lot of value.

<font color="green">Panelist 4
I will raise this hand. Assuming this is an average table from the reads. I have a speculative hand. If I raise all 4 the other players will follow. I am out of position for the rest of the hand. I don't like limping this hand with 4 others. If I raise here, I can c-bet the flop if missed and potentially shrink the field in a pot that will most likely be large. It also may give me future drawing odds.

[Buzz-cp]

This is a standard put more money in because we have a pre-flop edge, but this will decrease our post-flop expectation because we tie ourselves to the pot. Since we make better decisions post flop than our villains anyway (let's assume), we should take the easy choice of getting more value preflop.

[btspider]

PF: raise

[Smurph64]

Against two others in the small blind I would probably just complete this hand but as it is against 4 others its a pretty simple raise.