Playing with Ace-Queen

Little Slick, Big Trouble

Ace-Queen, it looks so good, but a trick hand to play, for sure. Short-handed it can win some monster pots, and it's a good short-stack hand, but getting involved with this holding against a full table can be a recipe for disaster, even though it is considered one of the top dozen starting hands in the game. Part of the stomach-churning mess that is Big Chick is that in tournament play, if you bet big preflop and are called, you could very well be facing ace-king. And if you call a big bet, you might be facing a ace-king as well, as that is one of the most raise-worthy hands in no-limit hold-em. Against ace-kin, yo are horribly dominated more than a 2-1 dog. You are also in deep trouble against pocket aces, kings or queens, and at best a coin-flip against a lower pocket pair.

Here are some of today's best players showing us how they play A-Q, when they play it fast and when they drop it like a hot potato.

John Phan Don't ever play A-Q. The last two or three years it has cost me at least a couple million dollars. All the WPT events I was the chip leader, I get A-Q and end up going crazy on it, suited especially. I have a really bad experience with A-Q so I suggest A-Q is the worst hand to play with. You can lose to a lot of hands and you can't call a reraise. If you try to move all in with it and you get called, it will be to a better hand.

Chris Ferguson

I like beating it! It's not easy to play, you have to worry. When you hit the ace you have to worry about A-K, but you can always run into problems like that. Every hand you have to play carefully and that's just another one of those hands you have to play carefully. If a guy raises in first position, I'm not really going to like A-Q that much. I might even fold A-Q before the flop. You always want to play aggressive. If a guy raises in second or third position, I might just call with it.

Kathy Liebert It's a scary hand, but it really depends on the situation. A lot of times you are going to raise with it but if you get reraised, you don't always like it. It just depends on the situation and your position. If someone is raising me in late position it is an automatic move in, with it if you are the short stack.

Freddy Deeb It depends how many handed the game is. I've gone crazy and played A-Q like aces many times. It all depends on who is raising, how much he is raising, how much money he has, how much I have.

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi It just depends on the situation. It depends on if I have enough chips to make a call with a hand like A-Q. It's not the greatest hand, but it's better than your average hand. There are so many situations and different ways to play it. Sometimes I raise, sometimes I fold, sometimes I call. It just depends who it is and who raises, what the situation is, where am I playing and how much am I playing for.

Joe Awada Be very careful. I like it but I don't go crazy with it, I just usually call, unless I'm in a certain position where I could afford to raise, then I make a raise. It's kind of a dangerous hand.