Hi all,

To give some context, this decision was made in a 9-handed ring game in a casino. I am English but played in a Vietnamese casino and the rules were a little misleading. I had understood the BI to be $30 but it turns out that was only the min; most other players had 75BB minimum in play.

Play was loose, spewy and many multi-way pots developed.

As the short stack, I played tightly and aggressively and despite my NIT tendencies I did get called, once by 77 vs my AK which hit an A, and once by A4 against my AA, even after numerous orbits of me folding everything.




Anyway to the question; with AQo under the gun I decided to open, though I'm looking for feedback as to whether this play is ideal. I'm short-stacked so little fold equity vs other stacks which dwarf mine, cannot reasonably continue without hitting a pair or very good draw, plus I'm likely to be in a family pot.

Is this just a fold? I have better positions and hands in general to play here, though I know with the Ace blocker & image I can represent my top 3-5% of hands.

Thanks

What is your current stack and what are the stakes here? 1/1, 1/2, 1/3 or something else? Without knowing what is going on there isn't a real answer. Practically speaking, the only situation where opening isn't best is when you are so short that shoving is better. The debatable points are sizing and what to do on the flop.

So it was quite unusual actually, it was described as a SnG but over the course of 2 hours the blinds didn't raise once so it played like a super deep cash game. For $30 you enter with 9000 chips and blinds at a consistent 100/200. Can't remember my size but somewhere between 6000 and 7,500. Every other player had nearly full stacks and played loosely. They had typically bought in for the max, around $300, but I didn't bring enough to buy in for that.

I didn't like my decision immediately, thinking that it's either push or fold with the minute effective stacks and table calling tendencies. Hope this clears up the mysteries.

Sounds like something that doesn't exactly match any American game. Can you cash out at any point, is it some sort of fixed duration game or does it play down to a winner? Can you buy in for more? It won't make a lot of difference in this specific spot though, the more it's like a tournament the better open shoving is but you are close to that point anyways.

30BB effective is an awkward spot for AQo at a loose game. Opening sizes are at least 1000 and probably 1500-2000, which leaves you no room post flop if you get called. If sizes are around 1000 then raise and hope you hit the flop, mostly give up if you don't but you can shove bluff sometimes if your heads up. If sizes are around 2000 then go ahead and open shove.

Yeah, you're telling me. Yes I decided to cash out after making a miniscule profit as I realised the game wasn't really beatable with such conditions. Well the standard raise was to 600-700, rarely did someone open raise for more but 3-bets were in good supply and varied more so in sizes, often being larger 3-bets due to larger stacks. As I said, no blind increase so it was not a tournament style and you could buy in as many times as you like.

How did they treat the rake?

Why do you think the game was not beatable? It sounds like very good conditions to me.

AQo is very rarely a fold UTG. This is not an exception.

With 100/200 blinds 600 open is on the small side for a low stakes cash game. Raise to 700 and see what happens. Depending on the situation folding/call/reraising might be best when you are 3 bet.

1) Rake was seemingly harsh. I bought in for £30 (equivalent to 1,000,000VND) and entered the game with 9000 chips. I cashed out for 12,000 and left with the equivalent of £30.30 :S. It was my first time and got a membership so perhaps my fee attributed to that.

2) Had I been fully-stacked I would agree but it's too stiff to play with that kind of stack size and not have any money behind to rebuy. Next time I will go with the intention of entering the game ith 100bb.

3) Similar to my previous observation. Normally I would not have considered it a problem but my stack size offered me little leverage and zero fold equity (I was getting called despite folding for sometimes 4 or 5 full orbits at at time). The reason I posted about that particular hand is to get some feedback regarding player types in the situation vs my stack size and image.

Yeah I would say that 30betting ranges were reasonably wide but not crazy. Normally higher SC cards getting fancy or a rag suited Ace, that kind of hand. I think in hindsight this particular situation may have just been an easy fold to be honest.