Pokerwebpages.com → Advanced texas holdem poker

Playing AQ

Let’s look a little closer at AQ (and similar hands).

If you hold hands like AQ in early poker position, you should probably not raise if you are in a game where your raise will fail to cut down the field.

In fact, if you are in a good, loose game, you are under the gun, you choose to only raise with hands like big suited connectors that play well in large multiway pots, (there would be nothing wrong with that.

To see why this is correct you must ask yourself when you are in a game like this. “What an I trying to accomplish by raising?”

For your raise with AQ to be correct, you must be able to limit the pot to only a small number of players.

If you can’t do this, then you must hit the flop to win.

You will need to flop an ace or a queen (or some other reasonably good hand) to continue.

It would be different if you could limit the field and thus sometimes expect to win with just ace high.

But once the poker game is loose that’s usually not the case.

Look at it this way. Suppose you raise with several players call, but your raise causes another player with the to fold.

Are you happy that he folded ?

If you were heds-up might be happy that the 8♣ 7♦ folded.

But once many players are in, you have to flop an ace or a queen, and the 8♣ 7♦ is only going to hurt you if he catches two of his cards while you also catch.

Thus he has to hit two out of four cards instead of one out of five so you no longer really want him out.

So if you knew your raise with the A♥ Q♠ would force the 8♣ 7♦out, but a call will not, that’s not a reason for you to raise.

(Of course it would be different if your AQ was suited. Now you should raise for some of the reasons that were discussed previously. A large multiway potis what you are now aiming for.)