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One reason I think many Pros hate AQ is for situations like this one. Most Pros play aggressive and will re-raise here, run into a premium pair/an all-in pre-flop against their re-raise, which forces them to call since they are pot committed.

If I recall correctly, A-Q is the hand that kept knocking at Phil Ivey in the WPT final tables. And A-Q is often the hand cited by many Pros as their least favorite.

As to folding in this situation pre-flop: Frankly, that is a play I used to make before I did all the research for my book. The reason I no longer fold is that my chip stack is about to be in danger. The next level I will have only 8x's the BB, so I need to accumulate chips, and this hand may be my best opportunity.

If this $500-$1000 level just started, and the round was 60 minutes then folding can be ok. But if it's online and a 15 minute round, I have to play my chip stack, be aggressive and work to accumulate chips.

Overall, one of the things I have tried to implement is to be aggressive in poker events (which is counter to my personality). Being aggressive results in my being knocked out earlier more often than playing survival poker, but it also puts in more situations where I can absorb a bad beat or two and/or have enough chips to win the event. One win pays for a lot of buy-ins.

Don't get me wrong, folding pre-flop is an option.

I recently folded in a similar situation which turned out to be the correct decision--but I ended up only winning a few dollars. I had regrets later about the fold.

My situation: We are at the final 2 tables. The event pays 16 players (18 left). I have about 10 times the BB. A player upfront calls, and a player in a middle position raises 4X's the BB. I have K-Q in the SB.

The caller is weak since he has limped upfront too many times. The raiser has a big hand--I've played against him many times. If I call, we both only have enough to make a pot sized bet on the flop. I fold.

The caller actually moves all-in. The raiser insta-calls. The caller has 8-8, and the raiser A-A. The raiser wins. I would have been knocked out if I entered the pot.

At first, I patted myself on the back. But later, I felt that I shouldn't let my read decide my play. Why? There have been times my read was right, folded my hand, but I would have won a big hand on a suckout.

Sometimes you have to get lucky to win... you make the wrong play at the right time.

There ya have it! You've just brought up the single greatest debate surrounding fundamental tournament strategy: Aggressive play vs. survival poker before the bubble.

Personally, I'm a survivalist. Though after reading the story about Negreanu in Little Green Book, i may change it up!

...Gordon described how in the 2004 WSOP 1,000 NLHE (re-buys) event, Daniel went broke 27x and having invested 28k went on to place 3rd for a 101k prize and 73k profit. He's good.

I think that I have to agree with Mitchell on this one. Why do we play MTT's to start with? To win the things of course. You're chip stack is definitely safe for the current level to play cautious, but how much more time did you have before the blinds increased again putting you to an all in or fold situation? Even then if you waited for the perfect hand you might double up but still be close to the same situation that you were in before... Safe until the next level.
I have taken both the conservative route and the aggressive route on the bubble and have found that both ways take me into the money, but the aggressive route takes me farther. Another thing that I try and remember when I'm playing on the bubble is that the largest collection of low money finishes won't make you a profitable tourney player. It's the top finishes that matter and to get there you've got to take chances and get lucky. Though, I've yet to make it to a final table....
I've also been in the same boat as you plenty of times with getting to the bubble, only to be moved to a new table. I hate when that happens. YOu don't have any real reads on your opponents, nor do they on you, and it makes it that much more difficult to know when to pick your spots.

__________________
"No Limit Holdem isn't about how good your cards look...

It's about how profitable the situation is."

Hey PoWda is smarter than you think!

Funny story:
Last night at FT, 29 players at no limit event. Down to 5 players. Pays only top 3. I'm in BB with $4,800. Blinds $150-$300. Under the gun raises to $900, next player moves all-in for $5,000. Other two players fold. I have A-K. What to do?

These two players are super tight. I fold. The initial raiser calls off his remaining $2,000 and just has A-6. The re-raiser has K-K and wins. I would have been knocked out. Bubble time.

Next hand in small blind. Everyone folds to me. I find A-Q, and raise to $1,200. The big blind (who won last hand) moves all in. What to do?

I decide to call, thinking it is a good time to race. He turns over A-K. Doh! I'm out with the dreaded A-Q...on the bubble.

In those situations like you just described above, I would have folded in both cases. The first one is obvious that you've got to hit to win and that the opponent is holding a big pocket pair. For the second one though, I don't like to (have and lost many times because of it) call all ins for all my chips without have some sort of pocket pair or AK. Also though, with AQ, I wouldn't raise that much pre flop. When the blinds start getting that high the majority of the time I'll min raise preflop. If I get called and the flop comes good, meaning I hit or it looks as though I hit, I'll usually win the pot there. The only time that I'm more than min raising is when I don't want anyone to call and I'm just there for the blind steal or I want someone to push.


**** Edit****
Another thing that I was just thinking about is if the tourney only paid to 3 places and there were that few people left, the just now big stack has a pretty decent shot at making it into the money. You have to think for a minute, aside from just being the Big Stack Bully, why would he/she be willing to risk the lead so soon without holding AK or a big pocket pair. Also, with so few places being paid, all three places will have a fairly decent pay out, and with being that close to the money, playing tight and conservative would be the way to go. In a field of a couple hundred or a couple thousand though, I think it's better to take more risks on the bubble to possibly position yourself to go deep where the real money is rather than just scrape by into the money and only get a very small return.

__________________
"No Limit Holdem isn't about how good your cards look...

It's about how profitable the situation is."

Hi PoWda, You should fold, but for reasons not yet gone over in the posts so far.
Look at the table and seating layout:

Seat 1: Energie83 (2263 in chips)
Seat 2: FloppyMcNutZ (17215 in chips) <-- You
Seat 3: jackypique (8388 in chips)
Seat 4: robertroyce (38798 in chips)
Seat 5: Antony10xx (22360 in chips) <-- The BB
Seat 6: Jensiello (49396 in chips)
Seat 7: szczeros5 (18240 in chips) <-- First raiser for 2000
Seat 8: modfan (31800 in chips)
Seat 9: Bauer_Ace (43550 in chips)

Anthony10xx is in the BB and the blinds are 500/1000 ante 125.
Now in EP (Early Position) szczeros5 raises 2000. The key question is what kind of hand do you think szczeros5 has? If you think it is a legit high hand, throw AQ away. If you think he is slinging some randome KQ or KJ type of hand, raise all in.

There are a lot of people left to act, so he probably has a premium hand, but not necessarily, because the chip leader UTG has folded, and is out of the hand, so the risk of being called by a big stack is reduced by one, an important consideration for a player needing to chip up prior to the blind hitting his stack. Keep in mind that szczeros5 has an M of close to 8 ... he has to do something soon. I would be suspicious given the circumstances, but what other clues are there that szczeros5 has a *real* hand? The raise is on the small side, If he were slinging a bad hand, a small raise is *NOT* the way to pick up the blinds & antes. It seems to me szczeros5 wants action and this implies a real hand. AQ is not much fun with a raise in EP, so without a read you have to make a reasonable guess. This is the kind of situation where I send my AQ on an all-expense paid vacation into the muck, with no regrets.

That said, if I had a read that szczeros5w was some kind of loose weasel ... he gets raised. Hope this helps.

Learn to love the bubble ... because you want to live on the bubble or cashing. Going out before the bubble is worse IMHO, even though sometimes, it will happen.

__________________
flintsword

"The lucky player is usually the player that knows how much to leave to chance."

Blog www.myspace.com/flintsword

depends on how tight oppenent and, how scared he are of the bubble, but 3-betting with that on the bubble is certainly profitable, he can't fight back with KK-AA or so.. and calling with lots of good but not gret hands, and u can play him postflop ;)