Loose-aggressive home game. It's a .25/.50 game, but allows unlimited straddles. UTG straddles to a $1, UTG+1 straddles to $5. limp, limp, limp to me in MP. I have AQo. My stack is about $45.

I have two players to my left in LP. My immediate left is tightish, next to him is super tight. SB is tricky and competent, BB is a maniac, both straddlers are very competent, like to have fun, and have a couple beers in them. I don't remember exact stack sizes ... some bigger than mine, some smaller.

Call? Limping in to the $5 straddle seems bad. On the one hand, it's $5, which is huge at these stakes. On the other hand it's still a limp, so there's a decent chance I'll face a raise or all-in. I think I can beat this table by being patient, so I'm not thrilled with having to go all-in with AQo.

Raise? Seems like a strong choice. 3x the straddle [the effective BB here] is $15. The downside: All of a sudden I'm practically pot-committed. I would only have about $30 behind; if I get one caller the pot will be larger than that.

Fold? Hate to do that. Because it's a very loose-aggressive table, AQ is the type of hand you can play pretty strongly .... you could easily win a nice pot over an A9 or A7 type hand.

So there's $21 in the pot? That represents almost half your stack. Just shove and be happy if you collect the dead money. Any decent raise size commits you anyway.

Sorry, meant fold, fold, fold to me. So when it gets to me there's $6.75 in the pot.

I'm raising to $12-13 and not folding to a reraise if you have a good read of the players

Easy shove

The 5$ straddle makes your 45$ stack equivalent to 9bb. With that many bb AQo is excellent.

Raise to 15$.
If re-raised. Call/shove.
If called. Bet rest of your stack on any board.

Yes and no ... if I'm in a tournament, and I have 9bb, of course I'm all-in with AQo.

But for this hand, if I fold, I'm back to almost 100 bb the next deal because the straddle is gone.

This is a very clear shove. There's $21.75 in the pot and your stack is only $45, and your hand is well ahead of your opponent's ranges.

Also, if the game allows unlimited straddling, I'd be buying in for far more than 100 BBs. If the buy-in is uncapped, I'd make sure that my stack covers everyone else in a game like this.

Jam and pray.

Even if you lose with AQ, couldn't you just buy more chips and reload for the next hand? It's a cash game, not a tournament.


The problem here is you'll be playing so nitty that it will make it much harder to win.

I also think that what you're saying here is irrelevant. You can raise AQ here AND be patient in future hands. You can do both.

Here is something that is relevant: Which will make you more money in this spot? Raising or folding?

Why is that a downside? The hand is actually easier to play when you get pot committed so quickly. AQ is a fantastic hand to have in this spot. Being pot committed so quickly would be a problem if you have a hand that relies a lot on implied odds like suited connectors or low pocket pairs.

If you even consider folding here you need to find a .10/.25 game somewhere and play there. Raise to $13-$15 and jam any flop. If you lose, you lose. The only way you can play this hand poorly is by open folding or limping.

I'm not sure you guys aren't overvaluing AQo.

As a reminder, there was just 6.75 in the pot when it came to me. (Fold fold fold to me instead of limp limp limp, as I initially wrote.) Is that reward worth shoving or getting practically pot-committed with AQo? Do you shove with AJ?

So, in the actual hand I bet 15, expecting to take it down. Player to my left went all in (I had him covered, barely). The initial straddler went all in (he had me covered). Back to me. There's something like 90-95 in the pot and it will cost me my last 25 to jump all-in.

We're not always winning 6.75. Sometimes we get called, shove the flop and win more. Sometimes we win an entire stack.

I think calling makes things easier for your opponents (and so does folding of course). If you raise it tends to suck for them a lot more.

There's a lot less to this hand than you think. The only decision is between shoving outright and raising to 15 and calling a shove. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you lost?

Shove pre. It's a straddled pot and AQ is ahead of all the randomness. If you aren't shoving/raising you are undervaluing your hand, not overvaluing. If a rock had shoved before you who only shoves AA then sure, dont overvalue your hand. That's the case though.

Reload if you lose.

obvious snap call

as has been pointed out, you have 9bb this hand, don't plan to fold AQ

Shove or raise/get it in.

Can't fold because they could be doing this with medium PP. Weaker aces. Only AK, QQ+ dominates us. If they have it GG its a cooler.