AJo UTG on Final Table of MTT

[Samba_SamPa]

Canvassing PL's extensive pokering ability on what they would do in the following situation.

I was sitting comfortably 2nd in chips, and get dealt AJo utg.

do you Fold/Call/Raise? And why?

***** Hand 1250410935 *****
150.00/300.00 Texas Hold'em (No Limit ) - 24 September 2008 22:04:27
PLounge league (Real /Tournament )
Seat 1: PLavongirl (10423.00)
Seat 3: Arkadiusz3 (6162.00)
Seat 4: $jumalix$ (7301.00)
Seat 5: PLmorlspin (4586.00)
Seat 6: PLslapdash (3098.00)
Seat 7: xuberplx (3512.00)
Seat 8: plmrbrix (4296.00)
Seat 9: MigueAArt (2770.00)
Seat 10: plSamba (9627.00)
plmrbrix post SB 150.00
MigueAArt post BB 300.00
** Deal **
PLavongirl [N/A, N/A]
Arkadiusz3 [N/A, N/A]
$jumalix$ [N/A, N/A]
PLmorlspin [N/A, N/A]
PLslapdash [N/A, N/A]
xuberplx [N/A, N/A]
plmrbrix [N/A, N/A]
MigueAArt [N/A, N/A]
plSamba [Jc, Ah]
*** Bet Round 1 ***
plSamba...

[GotaFancy?]

Raise to 2.5xBB (750) for me - you have a relatively weak Ace, so you cannot withstand any pressure - a reraise and you're out of there. Bet doesn't need to be bigger - being UTG you are telling your opponents you are strong (stronger than you are) - no need to put a lot of chips in.
A fold isn't bad.
The hand is too weak to limp.

I forgot (again) it was the PL league game tonight

[happyhornet]

Helen is next to act!! Easy fold, she had a spare pair of Aces up her sleeve tonight!!

Normally, raise 2.5 - 3 x BB, and see what happens, as GaF says,
auto fold to a re-raise.

[billy the punter]

Regardless of my position on the leaderboard I'm at my tightest when the FT begins.

People take chances as soon as they sit at the FT, and not just the smaller stacks.

If no one has entered the pot (which inlcudes UTG obviously) I raise 95% of the time with AJo.

However this may be one of those times when I don't. You're in a good position but only one bad hand away from being back in the bulk. Seats 6, 7, and 9 cannot call a raise they can only move-in, that would be on my mind, do I really want to lose potentially 33% of my stack with this.

With the blinds small in comparison to your stack so there is less value than there might be too.

Prior to the FT I'd be making it 900 to play here something like that, but due to the gambling factor common in the early stages of a FT I may just let this hand go and rock up and wait for a few of them to mess with eachother - in early position anyway.

Not that I think a raise is bad play - it isn't, and there I times I may raise in an identical situation. Making it 800 and folding to any re-raise in fine I'd say. Pretty much what the other guys said.

[SteveO]

With no antes in play I'd fold in this situation. Short and sweet.

[Blatch]

Quite a relatively easy hand to play.

A good argument could be made for folding here as its very arly position and will probably only get called / raised by a better hand. Problem with AJ is if a J high flop comes then your opponent has QQ and if an Ace high flop comes your oppo has AQ. You never really know where you are.

If you want to play it I would raise to 800 or 900, define your hand early and if you dont take the blinds look to get away.

Personally given your stack and your position I fold pre.

[Samba_SamPa]

Well that cleared things up

Basically opinion split I think.

Myself, I folded - like HH said that bloomin AvonGirl had a stack knee-high (well, it was around shin-high by this point ) of Aces under the table.

I was comfortable in 2nd place, and didn't want put 10% of my chips UTG with a raise with that hand, and never limp from there, so I let them go.

As the hand played out (I wouldn't have hit anything) I was thinking to myself whether that was too tight though - hence why I posted in here

[AJ]

yeah, i'd fold that with little doubt

[msaban]

fold. Bad position to play that hand will get you into trouble more often that not

[SteveDaRake]

easy fold dump that shit. Never, ever limp.

If your image was squeeky tight, then maybe a case could be made for an odd time small raise and fold to a 3bet and proceed carefully on the flop.

[robilaruk]

Originally Posted by GotaFancy?

Raise to 2.5xBB (750) for me - you have a relatively weak Ace, so you cannot withstand any pressure - A fold isn't bad.
The hand is too weak to limp.

I agree with GaF

Folding is ok

Limping is very poor

The tricky part is what happens if you raise to 750 or so and the BB shoves for their last 2K and a bit. Pot odds suggest you should call as there is just over 4K in the pot and it costs you 2K or so to call.

But all of a sudden you are playing AJo for about 1/3 of your stack and not for 8% or so with the first raise. Now I wouldn't want to play AJo for 1/3 of my stack in the BB if a shortie shoved, so why play it here?

I would be tempted to fold this unless i had been playing tight in which case I might raise. But if my table image is loose this is an easy fold for me.

Nice post!

Cheers

Damo