Tough decision with AQ offsuit in a tournament - What would you do?

[GBevilaqua33]

Hi guys,





I wanted to share a hand I played recently in a micro-stakes MTT and get your thoughts on it.





Blinds: 100/200


My stack: 6,500 chips





I was in middle position with A♠ Q♦.





A player in early position raised to 500 chips. Everyone folded to me and I decided to just call. The button and blinds folded.





Flop came: Q♥ 8♠ 5♣





The original raiser c-bet 700 chips. I raised to 1,800 chips. He thought for a while and shoved all-in for about 5,200 total.





At that point, I tanked…





Do you think calling here is good in this spot with top pair, top kicker? Or would you fold and wait for a better spot?





Any feedback is welcome!





Thanks in advance!

 

[Acechador]

It’s a tough spot, but at micro stakes players often overplay worse hands or semi-bluffs. You’re ahead of KQ, QJ, or draws like JT or 9♠T♠. Unless villain is super nitty, I’m calling here. Top pair top kicker is strong vs that range.

 

[mclay]

I think it all depends on how this player played in previous hands. In general, at micro limits in such a situation any Q can be pushed, if a backdoor flush is also possible. I would probably play a call, there would also be outs for strengthening, in case of his overpair.

 

[primrose]

Call. Your opponent can't have much and you're only 30 BB deep. If he has KK or AA, you're supposed to go broke there, it's not that big of a deal.

 

[black and]

I would have called.
Poker is not always a 100% correct decision, but in your situation, I think it was right to call because the risk was worth it. But you should also take into account how your opponent has played up to this point.

 

[dannystanks]

I’m probably calling and then walking out the door and saying I’ll never play AQ again lol. I really hate AQ sometimes.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
With this stack size I prefer to just call, because you are to deep to 3-bet jam, and AQ is a bit to weak to 3 bet and then get it in against a 4-bet.

Flop
I would just call here, but if you do decide to raise, that has to mean, that you are willing to play for stacks. Raise-folding makes no sense whatsoever, so as played its a clear call. There are not really any logical bluffs here, but I guess, he could perhaps have KQ and decide to go with it. Or another AQ, so that you chop.

 

[sandy358]

Hi guys,





I wanted to share a hand I played recently in a micro-stakes MTT and get your thoughts on it.





Blinds: 100/200


My stack: 6,500 chips





I was in middle position with A♠ Q♦.





A player in early position raised to 500 chips. Everyone folded to me and I decided to just call. The button and blinds folded.





Flop came: Q♥ 8♠ 5♣





The original raiser c-bet 700 chips. I raised to 1,800 chips. He thought for a while and shoved all-in for about 5,200 total.





At that point, I tanked…





Do you think calling here is good in this spot with top pair, top kicker? Or would you fold and wait for a better spot?





Any feedback is welcome!





Thanks in advance!

If you are not 100% sure that your opponent is a nit who would never bluff, it is very reasonable to call. If it is a set or kings or even aces then so be it. You beat any worse queen, you block aces, not to mention that your opponent can bluff with missed AK or underpair, all of which constitute a far larger part of your opponent's range than lower sets (3 combos each, 6 combos total), set of queens (1 combo), kings (only 6 combos) and aces (3 combos). For comparison, just AK (suited and off) are 12 combos. Potential top pair shove KQ (suited and off) are 8 combos, and that's not mentioning all kinds of lower suited queens. So this pretty much an easy call.

It may also depend on the tournament stage, but I hardly doubt it is reasonable to fold TPTK in any ICM spot.

 

[fundiver199]

It may also depend on the tournament stage, but I hardly doubt it is reasonable to fold TPTK in any ICM spot.

It might be but generally not for 32BB on a board with no made flush or straight and no logical two pair represented. But more importantly like I said already, why is Hero raising here? Hero has position, and his hand does not need a lot of protection, so he should clearly just call here and look to play the later streets. Then depending on the board runout, many Hero can sometimes consider a fold, if the Villain keeps firing.

Or he can check back for pot control, if the opponent slows down, and Hero does not want to play for stacks. What Hero can or should absolutely not do is to click it back and then dont know, what to do, when the opponent shove on him. Because its very predictable, that this will happen a non zero percentage of the time, especially when the opponent is out of position and will have less than a pot sized bet left, if he call.