excerpt from another thread,

the situation is this: there is a raise from early position by a solid player and a flat call by a decent player, you have AQo in the BB what do you do?

My response was fold.

Wow, you are folding AQ??? The raiser would have to have a VPIP of 10% for me to fold this in a limit game in the SB/BB. I three bet this happily and try to take control of the hand. AQ? WOW!

I didn't want to hijack the other thread so here is my reasoning

You are out of position and a solid player from EP would have TT-AA, AK, AQ. Thats what I see a solid player raising from EP with. Not to mention the cols call from a decent player which almost always signifies AQ, AJs, medium pair. A decent player would raise anything stronger and fold anything lesser.

Even giving the benefit of the doubt and figuring in AJs, KQs to the EP and ATs, KQs to the caller I still don't like this call.

The reason is you have 2 players. In this instance they would both have to be at the extreme bottom edge of their hand choices to even give you a shot at winning.

Against 1 player I would probably 3 bet, not against 2. And I'm not a big fan of calling a raise out of position with a marginal hand.

AQ is very marginal in a raised pot, never mind a multi-way raised pot. Great hand if the pot hasn't been raised or if you can do the raising. Marginal in a raised pot

fold in NL too.................

I fold, for the same reasoning. AQ is just about the worst hand I'd expect to see out of the raiser. 2/3 of the time you'll flop nothing and have thrown your bet away, and a good percentage of the time you'll HIT the flop and still lose (to AK with an A flopping or KK/AA with a Q flopping).

Again, as has been previously noted, it depends on the player. I don't like calling, BUt I'm either raising or folding, leaning towards raising. No, I'm not overvaluing AQ, I'm trying to determine its value. If it gets capped, well I know I got a loser, but If he flat calls, most likely he Doesn't have me dominated in some fashion. OF course, now the pot has grown big enough that you arre pretty much stuck, but oh well. Of course, again, it depends on teh players and the games.

Based on my hand possibilities???

If someone is consistently raising more hands than this (TT-AA AK, AQ, AJs, KQs, and maybe 99 or 88) from EP they are not a solid player.

Someone flat calling a raise with less than a pocket pair or AQ AJs, KQs is not a decent player, they are a fish.

I really think someone being labeled a decent player would not be playing much else here and someone considered solid isn't playing anything lesser from EP. Shit, I consider myself fairly solid and 75% of the time I fold AQ from EP. If I raise you better not be calling with AQ.

I would consider this one of the 3 biggest mistakes pre-flop in limit hold em, playing too loose from EP. Another mistake is calling "real" raises with marginal hands, and the 3rd big mistake I see is, playing too loose from LP when 1 or 2 people have limped in.

Personally I don't like getting involved with a solid player with anything but KK or AA. I will play more hands than this but I play them cautiously against a solid players raise. I'm there to make money from my opponents mistakes not to tangle with solid players.