Just thought Id make a thread of my trouble hands in which I get in a lot of trouble over and will over the next 6 months or so be looking at refining my play with these hands.

These are all based on my NL experience

AJo from Early position - If i put in a 4xBB raise and get reraised to at least 8BBs I find it hard to fold since I like to lead into flops - I guess from EP I will try and limp more with AJo

AJs from EP - the same situation as above really, which means I tend to run into uncordinated boards often and run into KK,QQ and even JJ quite a lot to which im a huge underdog - will probably try and limp with this hand in EP too..

AQo - EP/MP position - I tend to lead strong into the board as with AJ and if a king falls I will often try a continuation bet which doesnt work aswell against certain opponents - I need to limp with AQo early and raise in MP-late position more - Hopefully this will improve my game.

JJ and Tens from EP/MP - will limp more with these instead of getting into raising wars with QQ-AA which im obviously going to lose.

The last one Im looking at improving is AT - I tend to call too many raises with this and feel I should be limping more, especially on a tight table. I tend to find I get trapped easily with AT if the board comes X - X - A if I limp with AT I wont be leading but if I turn/flop two pair itll be disguised much more.

Just my thoughts for now.

AJ, AT, KQ, KJ, KT, and QJ are unplayable out of late position and any positon to any raise. They're garbage hands. The pots you win will be too small to make up for the dead money.

__________________

I agree almost 100%. I don't play any of these hands from early position and fold all but AJs, KQs and maybe QJs from late position with a raise from a player who has been seeing at least 25% of the flops and raising many of those hands.

But even when making the call with these hands, I look to hit the flop hard to I will let the hand go. For example, with the AJs, I would rather have a flop of J-8-3 than a flop of A-8-3. I will often fold in the second situation to any aggression.

__________________
CORYAN
I don't play a lot of hands....I just play a lot of them poorly.

I play mainly 6 max - would this advice still be true? I am currently evaluating my play with these sort of hands in EP. They are often the best hand at 6 max, but out of my options :

1) RAISE - any one that calls is likely to have you dominated.

2) CALL - Open limping is bad??

3) FOLD - What was probably the best hand.

Would you suggest that I just throw these hands away in EP on SSNL 6 max? I know a lot depends on the type of table and your opponents, but I think this is a leak of mine at the moment.

Yeah, i'm no expert but in a 6 max game, i would have thought that aj is a very strong hand nl.

So in NL cash games, is it not a good idea to raise with KQ, KJ, QJ, from early position? What about in late postion, is a 3XBB raise safe?

Its safer, but you can still get called by people who limp with AQ,AJ or even QQ, ive seen it happen, and its happened to me. I would judge by the table and how loose it is playing, the looser the better really.

I wouldnt raise any of these hands in EP.

how is AJ hard to fold when re riased pf?

I tend to get carried away preflop sometimes.. well not anymore.

My earlier response was based on this being a full, 10-person table. I would consider several of these hands playable on a short-handed table...especially AJ and suited KQ or QJ. However, you still have to recognize that you are out of position and play these hands carefully.

Also, there are many very good players who see flops with these hands on a regular basis. Being a LAG player is challenging, but can make quite a profit when played properly. I play tight, but have been experimenting with several hands from late and middle position that I would usually fold (65s, JTo, etc.).

__________________
CORYAN
I don't play a lot of hands....I just play a lot of them poorly.