Hey,
I've been a member here for a long while, although not been contributing much (mainly coz I think the regular advisors are far better than me, so it's better to keep shut!). Must say, this site has taught me a whole lot and I'm definitely a better player because of this. So firstly, a big thank you to all of you who make this site what it is!
Coming on to my question, I have found AQ to be my weakest starting hand as I never know how to play it. This has happened to me live, as well as online and I am hoping for some pointers. To illustrate:
I was playing live in one of the Central London casinos at the 1/2 GBP table. I was a big stack and I see AQ UTG. Action was fairly loose, with CO/BUT calling with virtually any 2. I decide to raise to 7. Action folds to CO, who asks the BB what his stack size is. He says he got 42 GBP left (he lost a big pot a couple of hands ago and was subsequently shortstacked). CO smartly raises it to 21. As expected, seeing the value, BB shoves his entire stack. Now, I truly admire CO's play here as I can't call anymore and show weakness. If I do, he will gladly shove his 250+ GBP stack in order to isolate the shortstack. For me, it was shove or fold mode, and I ended up folding and see the 2 hands to be AJ and A10. With an A on the flop and all low cards. AJ wins.
Online I play micro stakes, still trying to beat those levels! I think I am a much better live player than online, as most of my decent wins have come live, with very few online ones. Whenever I play AQ, I usually end up losing, either getting outdrawn by a weaker A (example A2 hitting 2 pair), or I end up against a pocket pair and draw a blank on all streets. Occassionaly I have got lucky outdrawing AK, but I know luck when I see it, and realise I played bad and got lucky.
I have followed the starting hand chart to the T, I have modified it depending on the players on the table, and everything I could think of! But just cant win a decent pot with this hand, and when I lose to an inferior hand, I lose big!
Appreciate any help I can get on this!
Apology for the long post, and thanks for reading/commenting!
Cheers!
