AQ facing BB reship, NL MTT

DailyHandQuiz

Game type: $55 NL MTT, PokerStars
Stage of tourney: ITM, 4 tables remain
Your image: TAG
Opponent’s image: Regular, but no strong read
Your hand: Ah Qh

The setup: You’re deep in the money of this freezeout on PokerStars when the following hand comes up. You get AQs UTG and make it 17k. The table folds to the BB, who ships.

You know the BB to be a regular, but you don’t have any real specific reads on their play.

What’s your play?

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DHQ Staff says: Calling 110k to win 150k isn’t the best price. Your image and position should sell this as a pretty strong hand on your part, so you wouldn’t expect a typical BB to be getting too far out of line here.

That said, regulars have less respect for UTG raises than most players, and are far more active about seeking out three bet spots, so there’s a decent chance opp is light here.

I think this is pretty close, but ultimately a fold. With some stronger evidence that the BB is pushing wide, or a slightly better price, you could make the case for a call, but you simply don’t have enough going for you here to justify risking your tournament life.

What actually happened: You folded

Quiz courtesy of PartTimePoker.com. Check out our WSOP Satellite Strategy and Info Pages.

10 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

igaz

Considering your table image, and UTG raise should look strong here. If v is willing to risk his stack in this spot, it’s a fair fold for me.

I leave the 17k and find better spots to move up the ladder.

[Reply]

Jeff

I don’t need any fancy math or phenomenal read for this one, FOLD.

The guy’s a regular.
You project strength UTG
He shoves

What exactly can you beat here? You think he makes this move w/ less than AJ? Get real. Pick another spot! lol.

[Reply]

Richard P

We only need ~ 40% equity to call this. I would expect AA or KK to raise less or trap but can’t discount those two hands. AK and QQ could easily show up here. Unless we believe this is some high level thinking play the only hand likely to show up that we are good againat is JJ. Therefore without any read on 3bet % this is a clear fold. With stack sizes as they are I would have folded pre flop as really hard to call a 3bet / shove. Seems like we just threw away 14% of our stack trying to pick up an 11% increase with 7 players left to act.

[Reply]

Richard P

I’d be interested to know if people would call or dump JJ and AK here.

[Reply]

Berend

@Richard: Well, I would definately dump AK here… Always a coinflip against a pair, and it might be me, but AK always seems to lose all-ins… And the last part also goes for JJ actually

[Reply]

Bert

I do believe that if we are raising this hand we should be willing to call a shove, if not we should just fold utg

[Reply]

Loki

I think the problem here is that the blinds are high enough and it’s late enough in the game that a strong opponent is not going to merely raise. In other words, I don’t think he/she would slowplay or make a small re-raise with AA/KK OOP. As stated before, here are the factors:
1) You showed strength with your early raise: fold.
2) You are a TAG player and he is a regular: fold.
The problem is you really really don’t want him flipping AA, KK, QQ (very likely here to me) and AK here. He might have AQs too, but I doubt it. Also note that the number of folds in front of him increase the chance he has an ace. He miiiiight make this shove with AJs but the times you are going to lose when he has better aren’t worth it.

I make note of his play and wait to pick another spot.

[Reply]

samo2

Against AK and QQ, the hand is fried. JJ- the price of slightly under 3-2 is about right. Nevertheless, I voted fold given the images of both the hero and v. Hero has a M=8, which is nothing to panic over and get crazy with AQs.

Richard – I’d fold both JJ & AK. I’d call with QQ+.

[Reply]

Donk

I would fold this one easily. I would guess he has JJ-KK or AK. Occasionally he might show up with AQ but that’s unlikely.

If I had JJ, I would still probably fold. In that scenario, the likelihood of QQ is very high. If I had AK, however, I would call.

[Reply]

McCowish

Fold
Any pair would behave this way except for AA, KK.
AK would certainly behave this way.

That’s basically his range. Ak, 22->QQ.

You are behind slightly to far behind against everything in that range. While it hurts a bit, you are not committed here.

Fold.

Opening utg for 3xbb suggests strength. He’s saying I crush your range and is close to 8x betting you. You can both damage each other,