I never quite know how much to commit to this hand as if it misses, which it tends to for me lately, then I don't want to have over commited. Obviously tho if you don't raise enough you get all the idiots coming along for the ride with A2 and catching you on a board of A72 or something.

Whats the best play for this hand?

Standard 3-5x BB raises are just find with this hand. The only hands you're behind are PP PF and if they hit their set, well, that's poker. You get a lot of people coming along with AQ-KJ here so you're dominating a lot of the non-pairs that will go to the flop.

If the flop misses you but comes, say, 364 rainbow, make a c-bet, a lot of time you'll take it down. If you get called, hope you catch on the turn but if its another safe card that you don't think gave someone a set, c-bet again. I double-barell my c-bets often and take it down a good portion of time. At this point, you're repping QQ+ and only one of those hands will keep going if they're not a donk.

Highly situational to the game you're playing, blind size, stack size and position.

There are times when a standard 3-5xbb raise isn't enough such as when you're in LP and have 3-4 limpers ahead of you. If the blinds are large enough (tourney) the pot may already big enough to try and take it down pf or at least thin the field of garbage hands with a really big raise up to 10xbb (someone suggested a guidline of Standard raise + # limpers - 1). Anyone calling that raise will most likely be calling with pp or suited high connectors such as K-JavaScript so you have to be alert to sets and flushes but you should have rank domanince.

Stack size is very important since if I'm in a tourny and in EP with AK and a short stack I'm most likley all-in whereas if I have an average or large stack, the standard raise would be called for. If my opps is short stacked and following me, I may occationally try to limp/trap the short stack into going all-in thinking I'm weaker tha TPTK. This has its risks and is very situational - usually I have to feel it's a good move at the time (such as we're short-handed) rather than plan it as a stategy!

No simple answer for your question as it depends on a lot of factors.

Originally Posted by Lamby100

I never quite know how much to commit to this hand as if it misses, which it tends to for me lately, then I don't want to have over commited. Obviously tho if you don't raise enough you get all the idiots coming along for the ride with A2 and catching you on a board of A72 or something.

Whats the best play for this hand?

This is almost asking like "what is the purpose of life".

This is so situational dependent - what type of game? what blinds? what stack sizes? what position are we in? what do we know about our opponents? . . . . .

Try posting up some HH's we can take a look at . . .

I was gonna put up some HHs but I don't have a converter for Pacific Poker or Poker Office. If anyone knows of one for either of these please let me know.