$50NL.

The hand before this, UTG had been in a pot against me where I'd slowplayed a set and had him hand over all but $5 of his stack to me. It's likely that he's tilting.

I have $90 and am in the SB with AQo. UTG raises all-in to a total of $5.50 (blinds are .25-.5). Everyone folds to the CO ($90 stack), who flat-calls, the button folds, and it's on me.

What's the best play?

Fold

AQ0 isn't a hand to get involved with in a multiway pot

I take it from the title of your post you're suggesting
a raise to isolate the one all in person.

You're thinking of risking pretty much your whole
stack at this point to win the guy's $6 that you haven't
already taken off of him. If you raise, and the C/O calls
I would think you're looking at being well dominated,
and it will be hard to get off of your hand since you've
already commited money to the pot.

Let the cold caller take the guy on for the last $6, then
go after your buddy again after he reloads.

Risking my whole stack? It's at $5... I'm not sure putting in a raise to $90 is really necessary here.

Dude, I never said to re-raise your whole stack, I just said that
by raising or calling here, you're risking your whole stack in a spot that you are probably dominated in if the C/O calls you.

If you raise here, and he calls, I think you're in deep trouble
and even if you hit one of your cards, you could be behind anyways
and it would be tough to lay the hand down postflop.

All in an attempt to try to win the other guy's $5.

I'd either fold or call. I don't think I'd raise.

I play NL pretty funky, though, so folding's probably the safe play here.

I imagine he would have reraised with AA or KK, so AK is the only holding we fear hear. More than likely you're against like KQ and AJ or KQ and 77 or something.

Ice

EDIT: The pot's well protected, too, with one player all-in, so the hand will play pretty passively unless you get a hand you can hammer with or vice versa.

I see I should have put some kind of smiley at the bottom.

I think there's value in knocking the CO out of the pot. I think the raise has to be approaching $20 for it to work reliably, though. It's really not worth it to play a pot that big with AQo three-handed and out of position with deep stacks.

Glad to know I'm not the only one thinking a fold is in order.

Maybe in a tournament, but definitely not in a cash game.

What's your reasoning?

In a tournament, you're a lot more likely to get a fold from the CO. Even if the CO suspects you're making a move and has a decent hand, he probably won't want to get involved with another big stack. He might even fold TT. When he folds, you'll be getting 2-1 on your money which is just fine for AQo.

Call

Easy to play post flop, all action is dead because of side pot.

Folding is absurd. Raising isn't any better.

Your price is good, you'll most likely get a free showdown and pick up some opportunities to win an even bigger pot if he gets stubborn with AK and you hit a miracle two pair. Ofcourse those scenarios are a long stretch, but they're worth mentioning.

Again, he's not going to bluff you off your hand postflop making this hand easy to play.

Call.

yea i read all these fold posts and was like wow..i hope at least one person wants a call. figures it was blink.

i call here too. easy.

easy to play post flop...easy to play preflop...co calls here with so many hands we have beat but raises almost everytime we are behind.

- Jordan

folding here is completely ridiculous.

since it's clear that the shortstack is pushing in virtually any hand, the caller is probably aware of this and has a pretty wide range of holdings with which to throw in 5 bucks.

if you call, there will be a dry side pot on the flop, so there's very little risk of being bluffed off the best hand (and AQ is very likely the best hand).

this will often go check/check on the flop and it's very likely that he could be playing a weaker ace.

i dont like a reraise here since you're still racing the shortstack if he folds and you're kicking yourself if he calls or pushes.

Fold.

Would you call AQo in a different hand where UTG raised 10 times the BB, CO called and you still had the BB to act behind you?


Yeah, he may be tilting, but is your only "evidence" the fact that he just lost a big pot?


He's not necessarily going in on any hand, yet...he's got a couple rounds around the table to look for a good hand to raise all-in with.


Why risk tripling him up? Do you really think he's trying to win 75 cents with 68 suited?

CO's probably on a draw...he's happy to go heads up, but he's also happy for a couple callers to make his draw more valuable.

Let CO take the risk.

There are reasons why many pros won't even touch this hand in NLHE.

Wrong

Main point about this hand, villian lost all his stack except 5 on previous hand. He is going all in on any hand in this spot, 100% sure on that.

Wrong back - the simple fact, on its own, that he lost all but $5 of his chips does not mean he is tilting.

As well, he is not going in on ANYTHING...blinds are .25/.50...he's got 11x the BB...yes, he's got the BB and SB coming...so, in 10 minutes he'll (unless he plays) have 9x the BB...those next 8 hands until he's back to the blinds is where he will loosen up more....hell, even if he passes those blinds and folds again he's still got 8x the BB.

He's not raising with anything here...he's got a pair or A-x or facecards. You're not winning, or you're not winning by much, or you're facing two outs with a lot of draws...all to win $11 in the mainpot.

If you're 100% sure on that, you shouldn't be. It's a mistake to make that assumption here, and you're compounding that mistake by assuming that CO is thinking the same way you are.

I agree completely.

In my experience AQo has his range of hands murdered. I would have bet a substantial amount of money against him having a pocket pair or AK/AQ.

Calling isn't bad. I hear a lot of questions answered with "you can't just call" and no additional support for it because we've all got it drilled into our heads that aggression is best.

Thats a very rational statement. The fact he has that many times the big blind is very true, to a thinking player.

I agree I wouldn't be going all in on anything, but my simple point is, most players are.

I've seen it enough from playing thousands of hands that he is going to get the rest of his money in on junk in this spot. Should he? No, its not rational, but you can assume that he is and profit from it.

Its the same reason you can push all in with aces at this limit. Is it reasonable to call a bet like that with JAcks? No, but people will anyway.

You put yourself in the villian's shoes here and thought about what he should be doing with his stack, but from my experience against players at these limits, he's just throwing the rest of his money away.

I'm stealing this concept from a popular cardplayer columnist, I believe it was Max Weisenberg, or something like that. The guy with the sunglasses and beret-looking thing.

What we're basing our assumption on is the same reasoning that goes into putting the tightest slots in the casinos next to the elevators. It's a small amount of money and you don't really expect to win with it anyway. It's completely irrational to those of us who view poker as a continuous game, but those who treat this as gambling just look at it as a way to finish a session and go do something else.

He's not making that $5 bet very often with a fantastic hand. He's making it with any two so he can lose the rest and go do something else. If he were to wait a hand and THEN go all in, you might be able to make a case for giving him some standards on his range.

dont be scurred of AQ

- Jordan

That's a very good point. And in hindsight, if he's NOT reloading with just $5 left, then he's probably not reloading at all, so, based on that you're probably right...he's chucking in $5 - if he wins, great...if not, he goes home.

FOLD every time. He's making a 10x BB raise. No way I call this w/ AQ even if its soooooooted.

CALL CALL CALL!!

Whoever said fold... come on!! Think for like 2 seconds first.

How many times have you played NL? Ever?

If someone loses 90% of their stack.... they either reload if they're a decent player... or they go all-in with anything the next hand. He is ahead of him, I can almost guarantee that... and I am fairly sure he's ahead of the other caller as well, but I don't like a raise here either way. But it's the easiest call I've ever seen!

Geez!

Some people (including myself) have posted opinions on what his hand range could be. I think the correct conclusion is somewhere near "any two cards."

I guess I should divulge what I actually did at the table. I raised to $20 and the other big stack folded. I found out later that he was an uber-fish who had very loose standards preflop. I lost the pot to the shorty's K3o.

The play worked perfectly. I thought about it some more and realized I was pretty much leaving myself open to a lot of pain from the other big stack and wondered what anybody else thought about it. Raising is attrociously -EV if your opposition has any clue at all.

Funny how I'm almost never unsure about the right play in NLHE tournaments but NLHE cash games always manage to throw me at least once a session.

calling here sucks, this isn't a tournament where it *should* be checked down to try and elminate another player. You're OOP with a hand that blows donkey balls, in cash games you try and get better hands to fold all the time by making continuation bets and semibluffing. Folding is better than calling, calling better than raising.

this is very true...but at low limit NLHE guy lost nearly all his stack on hand before, i say 7/10 he pushes in regardless next hand.

that's a big reason why we should call here with AQo.

I mean, i'd call with worse too but I like to gamble some when I play NL.


--

but yea, anywho..good post...and how are things going with you br wise? i read somewhere you ran into trouble...hope things are going better now for ya.

--

- Jordan

maybe the math says you should call here but I'm not a big fan of doing it unless I have a big stack. My bankroll is pretty much nothing right now, went from 12k-~$40. last week, don't really know what do right now, exploring some options at the moment.

thats rough man...good luck going at it again if you decide to.

- Jordan

We have $90 in a $50 buyin game. That's a decent-sized stack. Does that change your opinion any?

I disagree. I do'nt disagree that its not a tournament I disagree with teh fact that it won't get checked down. It will most times. He's not gonna bluff a dry side pot, most of the time.

So again, you are waaay ahead of the shortstack, and it will be easy to play postflop. Calling is better than folding.

so you routinely check a dry side pot down in cash games? I don't.

Not if I have something. But the action cetainly dies most of the time when someone is all in with a dry side pot. The question here is, do you routinely bluff a dry side pot? Like I said in my first response, the fact that the player is all in, makes playing AQo OOP very easy postflop. If he decides to bluff you off your hand, so be it, most of the time, that's not the case.

Think about this for a minute. In a table full of people who will always check-fold their decent hands in dry side pots, how will you ever get value out of your big hands when you're in a dry side pot? It's a no-risk advertising play. I am certain that higher-limit cash game players use dry side pot bluffs.