Would you call here with AQ?

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Nesehorn156

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I had about 25BB in an MTT and opened AQo from early position. The big blind called and the flop came Q 8 5 with two hearts.


I bet around half pot and got called. The turn was a 2 and he suddenly made a pretty big raise when I bet again. I ended up calling, but I wasn't really sure if I liked it.


Would you keep going with top pair there or just let it go?
 
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I’d probably call the turn raise, but I wouldn’t be looking to play for my whole 25BB stack with just top pair. The two hearts make it more complicated, so the river and villain’s sizing would decide whether I continue.
 
I don't think I would feel comfortable betting there either. It's a tricky spot, especially with top pair but a relatively vulnerable board and a big raise coming from the big blind on the turn. AQ is obviously a strong hand in this situation, but once the opponent suddenly puts in a large raise, I would start thinking about what hands I can realistically beat. There are also several draws and stronger hands that could make this raise. I might be tempted to call once, but I don't think I would want to put my entire tournament life at risk with just one pair. In my opinion, folding would probably be the most sensible decision, especially with around 25 BB. Sometimes protecting your remaining stack is more important than trying to prove that your top pair is good.
 
For 25BB I would be completely happy to stack off with TPTK against a single opponent on a board, where no straight, flush or trips is possible yet. He can easily have a worse hand like KQ, QJ or QT, that he wants to go with, or maybe he is playing like this with a draw. Occationally he will have two pair or a set, but then its just a cooler with this stack size. And you can still suck out on two pair.
 
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For me the turn bet is where this got decided. At 25BB that bet puts close to half your stack in with a pot about the size of what's left, so the rest goes in whatever he does. Fine call, fundiver199 has it. If you didn't want to go with top pair, checking the turn back was the way to do that.
 
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amirpc said:
For me the turn bet is where this got decided. At 25BB that bet puts close to half your stack in with a pot about the size of what's left, so the rest goes in whatever he does. Fine call, fundiver199 has it. If you didn't want to go with top pair, checking the turn back was the way to do that.
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Exactly. If betting the flop or turn for value will leave us with less than a pot sized bet left, we should pretty much always be willing to get it in against a check-raise. And if we are not, we should check back for pot control. Like maybe a hand like QT or QJ check back the turn and then look to call across most rivers or bet again if checked to. Or if its right on the bubble, and we really do not want to play a big pot, we check back AQ.

I suspect, that Hero lost this hand, and its typical, that people then tend to get very results oriented. But situations like these happen all the time in tournaments, and people dont always show up with 2 pair or better. This is way different than being 100BB deep, where a turn raise is far more skewed towards very strong made hands and big draws, because there is still a lot of stack left behind for river play.
 
Nesehorn156 said:
I had about 25BB in an MTT and opened AQo from early position. The big blind called and the flop came Q 8 5 with two hearts.


I bet around half pot and got called. The turn was a 2 and he suddenly made a pretty big raise when I bet again. I ended up calling, but I wasn't really sure if I liked it.


Would you keep going with top pair there or just let it go?
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if turn didn't close a flush draw i probably will go all in on his check raise turn move. But anyway i think i would go on the turn all in, cause BB widest range, there probably will some lower Qx like Q10, QJ, QK Q9 etc even if we have a blocker... or just bluffer.
 
Calling a 3-bet out of position (for example, from the small blind against the button) with offsuit AQo is a common mistake that leads to chip losses post-flop.
 
dreamer13 said:
Calling a 3-bet out of position (for example, from the small blind against the button) with offsuit AQo is a common mistake that leads to chip losses post-flop.
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We don't know Hero's pre-flop position. He said early position. This could mean an UtG open with a Villain call behind, or an open from the blinds and Villain check-call. If Villain calls from BT he likely has higher ranked cards. If he check-called then he has more speculative hands in range. Without this information, it is difficult for us to say how well that flop hit his range. A check call is more likely to have something like 76 open-ended or a set of 5s included in possible holdings. Whereas a flat call behind would have a bit more KQ AQ maybe even AA QQ KK. The turn 2 is a brick (unless it's hearts) so Villain either likes his hand right from the get go or he's a crazy wild bluffer.

Either way I can't say for sure due to incomplete info but it sounds like the price is too steep for top pair here. All that we beat is a worse Q or a whiffed mid pocket pair. It's overpair and sets that hurt us. I don't think he's betting large with 76 or hearts. He flat calls with draw, so this is somewhere between 60-40ish either way. Do you like to gamble on a big pot?
 
I think it really depends on the board and the action. AQ is strong enough to continue, but I wouldn’t want to force the hand if there’s a lot of aggression.
 
I think he had a set. I'm not sure if I would have continued playing.
 
Nesehorn156 said:
I had about 25BB in an MTT and opened AQo from early position. The big blind called and the flop came Q 8 5 with two hearts.


I bet around half pot and got called. The turn was a 2 and he suddenly made a pretty big raise when I bet again. I ended up calling, but I wasn't really sure if I liked it.


Would you keep going with top pair there or just let it go?
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What you want to do to study this is build a range for the Villains turn raise. What plays the hand like this? What value/ what bluffs?
Think about every street and use card removal to build that range.

The better you get at building ranges when you study the easier the game becomes when you are playing.

Equilab is a great program for range building. GTO WIZARD free version allows you 1 hand per day post flop great for a starting point of ranges on each street which you then refine in Equilab based on player tendencies.

🤔🤓
 
With 25BB you open with the best AQ, you should just go for a showdown, avoid overthinking. Sometimes the flop works out better for your opponent if they hit two pair, then you end up losing everything.
 
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