Hey there – I was playing the lowly $3.30 Velociraptor on Full Tilt earlier today, when I got a bit of stick from someone at the table for limping with AJ suited preflop – I then did the usual thing I'm sure we all do… …tell him politely I didn't need a lecture in poker strategy and then looked him up on sharkscope to see what his stats looked like, lol .

Anyways, I got to pondering that maybe my thinking was out of whack, so thought I'd post to see if I am warranted any further abuse for this play.

About 200 left in the tournament, I didn't have any stats on anyone as my HUD is currently playing up on Full Tilt – previous hand with blinds of 300/600 I had shoved with my stack of 9450 with KK to a preflop raise of 2400 and got called by JJ. This bumped me to 18046 in chips and very next hand it was limped to me in the CO with AJ suited, I was going to raise but as I'd got it all in previous hand I decided to just limp to induce action, and I wasn't afraid of action from either button or SB, if I got action from BB I would re-evaluate. Short stack SB shoved and I snap called, and his 6s held up. It was no great shakes in the grand scheme of things and I was happy to see 66 rolled over when I called – but one of the other stacks at the table said I deserved to lose chips for limping AJ and asked what range was I winning against with my hand.

Personally I've seen a lot of players do whacky things with a range that AJ suited dominates when they are short stacked and I felt a limp was preferable to a raise to get the shorter stacks in against me, but perhaps it's a sub-optimal play so would be good to hear any thoughts as usual – the great irony of it all is the guy who questioned my play was still there to see me bust out against a hand that was properly used to induce – I shoved A9 off on in the SB with 15BBs against an UTG limp who had just UTG+1 limped a previous hand and doubled up with 10J off – but this time he had limped with KK and sent me packing – I don't think my play was too crazy after seeing his previous limp and I think I was unlucky to walk into his trap, I was expecting him to call, but expecting a range that  I was beating – any thoughts on this too?

Hand history of AJ suited limp is below, and the A9 shove cheers! I fixed pokertracker after today's update and re-imported hands, villain who limped was 20/9 overall for 55 hands with an 18/8 from EP. With an 18% range A9 is about 45% (?) and I have to assume there is some fold equity which is why I thought the shove would be profitable overall, hmmmm.

Full Tilt – 300/600 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: …..racker.com

SB: 2,104.00
BB: 16,775.00
UTG: 6,508.00
UTG+1: 19,512.00
MP: 19,715.00
MP+1: 8,105.00
Hero (CO): 18,046.00
BTN: 7,748.00

SB posts ante 75.00, BB posts ante 75.00, UTG posts ante 75.00, UTG+1 posts ante 75.00, MP posts ante 75.00, MP+1 posts ante 75.00, Hero posts ante 75.00, BTN posts ante 75.00, SB posts SB 300.00, BB posts BB 600.00

Pre Flop: (1500.00) Hero has Ah Jh

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 600.00, fold, SB raises to 2,029.00 and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 1,429.00

Flop: (5258.00, 2 players) 8d 7d 6h

Turn: (5258.00, 2 players) 6d

River: (5258.00, 2 players) 7s

SB shows 6c 6s (Four of a Kind, Sixes) (Pre 51%, Flop 94%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows Ah Jh (Two Pair, Sevens and Sixes) (Pre 49%, Flop 6%, Turn 0%)
SB wins 5,258.00

Full Tilt – 400/800 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: …..racker.com

UTG: 37,970.00
UTG+1: 11,766.00
MP: 16,654.00
MP+1: 16,199.00
CO: 26,202.00
BTN: 13,160.00
Hero (SB): 12,942.00
BB: 11,195.00

UTG posts ante 100.00, UTG+1 posts ante 100.00, MP posts ante 100.00, MP+1 posts ante 100.00, CO posts ante 100.00, BTN posts ante 100.00, Hero posts ante 100.00, BB posts ante 100.00, Hero posts SB 400.00, BB posts BB 800.00

Pre Flop: (2000.00) Hero has 9d As

UTG calls 800.00, fold, MP calls 800.00, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 12,842.00 and is all-in, fold, UTG calls 12,042.00, fold

Flop: (28084.00, 2 players) Th 8s Jd

Turn: (28084.00, 2 players) Td

River: (28084.00, 2 players) 4h

Hero shows 9d As (One Pair, Tens) (Pre 28%, Flop 40%, Turn 25%)
UTG shows Kc Kd (Two Pair, Kings and Tens) (Pre 72%, Flop 60%, Turn 75%)
UTG wins 28,084.00