[pritz]

Respect your guy's opinions a lot so maybe you can help me on how to play these hands. Play online and can get pretty far but I get screwed with these same hands every time. The hands i'm talking about are... basically every 20 hand, AJ, A10, sometimes AQ. This is usually late in tourneys where people don't just play every time they see an ace. These hands are just nightmares for me. I feel like I should be playing them but not sure what to do with them. Should I raise in late position with them to steal blinds and make them act first??? Or limp in with them all the time? Then when the flop comes if i don't hit one i'm pretty much all but out but when I do I don't know if i should be playing aggresively with them because the hands that people will be playing against me are AK, AA, KK, QQ, or we could be sharing pairs and they could out kick me. THEN I always get big bets thrown at me where if i call i'm pot committed on a hand i'm not so confident. i got knocked out w/ QK. 10 players playing.... game was relatively tight so i threw in a raise which was double the blind. Didn't want to put too much money in this hand and only wanted to play 1 oppoenent and it worked. FlOP came up garbage it was like 10 5 3 w/ no double suit. I bet one decent size bet to try and win it right there but he calls. Then comes a rag, 6 i think, we both check. Last card is a queen. Now i make a pretty big bet like 4000 out of my 10000. I was short stacked at our table most of the guys at our table were in teens and some in the 20s and two whales at like 70k. He puts me all in and i feel i have to call. He beats me w/ AQ, out kicking me. What are your suggestions to do with these hands. I try to invest as little money as possible w/ them but i felt my hand was forced and i needed to make a move. Your opinions on what mistakes i made and how i can play these nightmare hands would be very appreciative.

[johnf]

You should have a good idea of someone playing AA or KK by what they are betting preflop etc. One simply answer would be to not play the hands you stated and then you don't have to worrry about it.

[lork]

What we are forgetting is that they do this when down to heads up, or three or four players at the final table. At a full table, just the fact that 9 players have had the opportunity to look at two cards and fold them greatly (IMHO) dilutes the value of these holdings.

Any thoughts from anyone else???

[pritz]

So in a 9/10 handed table should these hands be folded?? or only if a lot of people are in the pot? should u raise with them in late position or just limp in?? I know that when the tables get shorter these hands get better (6 or less people). The hands i'm talking about are: kq,kj,k10,a10,aj,qj,q10,j10.

[chris]

Depends on how you like to play and the action at the current table. If you have a 9-10 handed table and everyone tries to limp in, I might throw a raise out with one of these hands. However, if you have a strong raise and alot of people call it, a fold would probably be the correct play. There is no set way of playing any hand.

[norshvind]

Of course your betting position is critical as well, I would be tempted to limp in with those in a late position depending on my stack size and that of those already in the pot.